Altar of Leaves
by Zura
Summary: Two years have passed since the fateful events that shaped the lives of the Pilgrim, Knight and Killer. Each of them attempts to put the past behind but the mad king of the mists, the Dark Man, isn't content to leave them be. Reaching beyond the veil of Silent Hill to touch them in the real world he calls them back for one last game. Conclusion of the "Ashes To Blood" series
1. Chapter 1

Tormented Dreams

The dimly lit room was freezing and unnaturally quiet. The steady breathing of the dozen soldiers behind him and the low hum of machinery operating a wall away were the only audible sounds. The floor and walls were shabbily but effectively lined to trap in the cold and decrease the amount of energy needed to keep the room chilled.

Footsteps coming down the hall seem to echo like a lion's roar in that dead room. Stiffening slightly at the sight of his employer the old soldier genuinely hoped this meeting would be brief. The man coming down the hall wore a long black robe that concealed his entire body from the neck down. What was visible was a harsh face and long nose that held no humor or trace of compassion.

"Commander Hulme." His employer said softly.

"Sir." Hulme nodded.

"I trust things have been taken care of?"

"The cargo is in position and appears to be more stable then projected." Hulme rattled off in a finely honed military fashion. "Energy consumption is comparable with accepted limits. No damage was sustained to the equipment in the freezing process."

"What of the...other matter?"

"The target seems to have left the area. His residence was thoroughly searched and several stacks of the requested items were found."

"But?"

"The target left no clues as to currents whereabouts. We recovered evidence that there was more then one person in the room at some point."

"Interesting, interesting...what else?"

"The building was searched room to room but no substantial evidence was found regarding the original assignment."

"I see. Anything else to report?"

Hulme shifted uncomfortably which was unusual for a man like himself. "Only a suggestion sir."

"Yes?"

"The guard here appears to be...over staffed."

"Are you presuming to know more about the situation then I do, Commander?"

"No sir I-"

"You're being paid, handsomely, to do what I tell you to. If you had any idea how much it cost to secure the contents of this room you would not question my judgment."

"I did not presume to know more than you sir. It simply seemed like a waste of resources to keep such a well hidden room guarded like this."

"I'm not paying you to think, Hulme.

The soldier grit his teeth under his face mask. "Understood, sir."

"You would do well, Commander, to put it out of your mind."

"Aye sir."

"I am leaving. Refer any other suggestions to my liaison."

"Aye sir."

The robed man spun on his heel and clopped down the hallway out of sight. Hulme ordered his men to seal the room and take up their position nearby.

"Commander?" Corporal Janus asked as the massive door slid shut. Hulme turned to look at the young soldier but like his entire troop Janus' face was covered by the black mask and infrared specs.

"Yes trooper?"

"Why did you let that prick walk all over you?"

Hulme sighed. It was up to him sometimes to keep discipline up even if he didn't want to. "I could tell you the usual, Corporal. That he's paying for this action which makes him our employer and valued customer. That obedience and excellence are what this company bases its reputation on. But when it comes down to it, I just don't want any problems. I want this assignment to go smoothly and quickly."

Janus nodded after a second or two. "Well I can't argue with that sir, it's just...that guy is kinda creepy, ya know?"

"Corporal," Hulme said thoughtfully, "I think creepy is just the beginning."

* * *

There wasn't much for Charles Taylor to do these days. The insane asylum he was staying at eventually ran out of videos and magazines for him to kill time with so instead he had to keep himself entertained. It was a nice little routine: an hour of exercise in the morning, shower afterward, breakfast and then some kind of creative outlet. Monday was painting day, Tuesday he penned memoirs, Wednesday was the dreaded group activities day, Thursday he did intricate coloring books made for adults and Friday he folded origami. Weekends he did nothing but relax in the day room and watch TV. It wasn't hard to get what he wanted on the tube when the other patients were so out of their minds they had a hard time telling where they were.

After the first year or so he managed to scale back his medication after talking with Dr. Pardee. The doctor was kind old man with a soft smile and intelligent eyes that reminded him of a small town practitioner back in Chuck's hometown that knew all of his patients personally. Pardee agreed that he had made a lot of progress and coupled with good behavior ordered the medication decreased. Sometimes it felt like he was here when he shouldn't be but that feeling went away almost as soon as it came.

His crime, the reason he was here, and the reason he did not deserve to leave was simple. Nearly two years ago he wandered into Silent Hill on accident. Believing he was on a mission to save the friend that came with him, the 'friend' turned out to be a hallucination incarnated to a real person by the town's dark power. The truth of things came back to him eventually in the worst way.

His dearest love had spurned him for another man and in a black rage he murdered her in his bedroom. The town showed him the truth and he was forced to face it without the aid of his imaginary friend. He thought of taking his own life but he turned himself in to the authorities instead. Unconcerned with going to prison he expected only punishment the rest of his life. This truth and his memories were never far from the surface of his consciousness.

This morning it was Thursday which was usually coloring book day . He would ask for his special set of colored pencils that were supposed to be for everyone but nurse Dix made sure no one else used them. He was very grateful for that small consideration. In a place like this those little things meant the world.

But this was the third Thursday of the month. That meant sometime before noon one of the nurses would call his name and he would be led to a small room to wait for his lone visitor. This happened each and every month at the same day and same time. The person that always came to see him might not have been a person at all but it was the only friend he had. They would talk about a great many things in that short two hours and he would always feel better afterward. It gave him something to look forward to in an otherwise routine life.

He waited patiently in the day room for the nurse to call his name. He channel surfed for a few hours before realizing it was past noon and his name still hadn't been called. Springing to his feet he went to the counter to see what the hold up was.

"Hello Chuck." Nurse Page said somewhat less monotone than usual.

"Hi Diana. Is my guest here yet?"

"We haven't had anyone sign in yet today. Are you sure your guest is coming?"

"Has to be. Its the twenty first isn't it?"

"Yes?"

"Maybe he's late or something. I'll just go wait a bit more."

"Okay, but don't be too upset, sometimes people just forget." Nurse Page said.

This one did not forget. The man coming to see him was no ordinary person but the very instrument of Silent Hill that forced Chuck to face the truth about himself. In the town he assumed the man, the Dark Man as Chuck called him, was just another of the town's oddities but he was as real as anyone else here.

The hours ticked by and Chuck began to worry. Did he do something to offend his friend? Troubled, he tried to focus on the TV but it was no use. The one thing he looked forward to in his sad life was apparently over and there was nothing he could do about it. Chuck cut back on his activities over the next few days and simply stopped doing them on others. After a week or so even Dr. Pardee came by to ask how he was doing. Just like that he had gone from relatively stable to despondent. It was made worse by the fact that he knew what it was that was bringing him down and he couldn't even get a message to his friend to ask what was wrong.

After a few more days of lounging around Dr. Pardee came in to see him with two of the larger orderlies that worked there. Chuck's eyes went wide at this unexpected development for never in his entire stay did they threaten him with that much force.

"What's going on Doc?"

"Some men are here to move you to a different facility Chuck. The FBI is here to move you."

"What? What do they want me for?"

"I don't know Chuck but they have the proper authority. This whole thing sounds like a misunderstanding but I promise I'll get to the bottom of it as fast as I can."

One of the orderlies moved forward with a pair of hand cuffs. "Hands out." he commanded gruffly. Chuck was thoroughly confused but did as he was told. The cold metal closed in on his wrists and Dr. Pardee led the procession down a series of halls. They turned into a room with no windows where three men waited. Two of the three were nearly identical in dark glasses and gray suits. They stood behind the third sitting at the small table in the room. Chuck was plopped down in the only open seat at the table facing presumably FBI agents.

"That will be all Doctor, thank you." The one in front of him said. His voice was a cold and monotone rasp that was mildly creepy. His accent was something Chuck wasn't familiar with if it was an accent at all. His face was stony, harsh, with a head bald and eyes like a hawk. Decked out in an expensive black suit with white undershirt and blazing red tie the bald man was downright imposing. Dr. Pardee and company left the room all too quickly. The door to the windowless room shut and Chuck was suddenly uneasy.

"You're Chuck Taylor am I right?" The bald man asked. Chuck nodded hesitantly.

"My name is Agent Byrd. These are agents Troff and Sconoman. Do you know why we are here Mr. Taylor?"

"I have no idea." Chuck said truthfully.

"We know that you came into contact with Nolan North during his time on VisCom's executive board. We know you met with him a number of times. We're here get the information what exactly you did for Nolan and how much you were compensated."

"What are you talking about? I've never met anyone like that."

"Mr. Taylor, the FBI has no patience for your denials." Byrd continued. "We have audio and visual documentation of these events. Now, we are prepared to offer you a generous plea bargain if you cooperate. If you don't..."

"This is absurd." Chuck stammered.

"...then we will be forced to go to re-trial and incarcerate you in some of the roughest prisons on the planet. Is that what you want Mr. Taylor?"

"Look, you're not listening. I don't know what is going on, I've never met a...whatever the hell that guy's name was and I didn't work for anyone! The only job I ever had was in Canada!"

Byrd folded his hands and rested them on the table. He had the cool demeanor of a viper waiting for its prey to come into striking range. "I see you do not wish to cooperate. Agents, escort Mr. Taylor outside while I finalize the paperwork."

"Hey! Hey! You can't do this! You've got the wrong guy!" Chuck protested as the two men hauled him roughly out of the chair and back into the halls. It was like something in one of his bad dreams only this time it was too real for comfort. As much as he didn't want to admit it the thought of leaving the asylum was mildly frightening. To add to the anxiety these men were taking him away on false pretenses to who knows where.

For a half second while they moved him through the security doors he thought that perhaps something like that did happen. Perhaps his mind hid it from him again. But that was absurd; he'd never heard of the company or person he was supposed to have been working for and had rarely been in the States. He certainly was never involved in anything the FBI would care about.

The agents led him out to an unusually large van with a cargo area for prisoners. The windows were reinforced with steel mesh on the inside and the rear double doors had a large sliding lock on them. Was this really happening to him? The agents handled him roughly and shoved him into the back of the van before locking it tight. They went around to the front of the van which had two custom made bench seats. Chuck tried to get comfortable on the stool he was given and waited tensely for something else to happen. The two agents in the front were quiet and Chuck realized they hadn't said anything the entire time. The only person who spoke at all was the creepy Byrd guy.

As if on cue Byrd appeared at the steps of the hospital. He slid wordlessly into the driver's seat and fired up the van's loud diesel engine. When the bald agent backed the vehicle up he looked straight past Chuck as if he wasn't even there. This whole thing felt like a bad dream but he had to note the irony of the situation. A mental patient trying to tell everyone that they were crazy and they had the wrong guy. Maybe it was another mental trick after all. Byrd turned smoothly onto the road and in minutes they were on a highway going to an address unknown.

* * *

The air was breezy and warm. Sunlight filtered down through the clouds pleasantly onto the people gathered in the green meadow. It was a beautiful and timeless day somewhere in the wilderness with no sign of civilization in sight. Although it didn't seem like it this was a perfect day for a funeral. There was no building, no procession or pictures, just some chairs and a casket on the grass.

A man she had never seen before escorted her to the seat with her name on it though she had the vague impression that it wasn't her name. People were dressed in black suits and women wore large pillbox hats with thick veils. A low rumble of hushed voices and whispers filled the impromptu meeting in the middle of nowhere. The rows of chairs were arranged neatly in two sections facing the casket and the podium behind them. She did not recognize any of the other mourners and this bothered her for some reason.

The crowd quieted when a speaker took the podium. He was a few inches short of six foot, a stocky Hispanic man with a clean shaven face and a fine black suit. His face was somewhat rounded but jaw angular, hair black and spiked up forward. When he spoke his voice emanated rather than coming from his mouth.

"Dearly deceased, we are here to honor you as the wind blown leaves you are. The cold hand of hallowed autumn showed you the end and at last the winter of your lives has come. Yet in your stupidity you saw not the warnings around you."

The crowd rippled with excited whispering but the speaker continued over them as if they were not there. "You wayward leaves, so far from home only to be scattered by the chill wind and glorious frost. Lay your weary spirits to rest here. We consecrate this patch of earth that bore you and so you shall return to it. But go knowing this is one of many places to lay yourself to rest and that this journey was shortened by your hand."

The man on the podium spread out his arms grandly. "Let us pray, we sinful children. Will the assembled rise and pay their respects."

The mourners got up and filed into two rows to approach the casket. The man that had taken her to her seat led her somberly down to the front of the rows. Along side her men were talking and hugging sincerely while a woman sobbed near the front of the line. Funnily enough the day seemed as bright and optimistic as ever.

It wasn't until they were very close to the front of the line that she saw there were two caskets and both were open. Roses had been laid on both of the coffins and large flower wreaths rested by each end. She was dismayed to see her own face and body resting peacefully in the wooden tomb. Just as peaceful was her man, Victor, lying just as dead in the opposite casket.

"Kinda frosts your dick doesn't it needle cone?" asked the man on the podium. He was grinning wide enough to split his face in half and it made her uncomfortable.

"Wha-what?" Was all she could stumble out. The man on the podium came down to join her by her own casket. She had the vague impression that all of the other guests had somehow vanished in that brief moment. The strange man ran his fingers lovingly along the coffin's finely polished exterior. He picked up a rose and sniffed it with exaggerated motion.

"Do you know what this is? It's a Scarlet Carson. It's considered an honor to be buried with one." The speaker blew on the rose and it quickly withered in just a few seconds from his breath. The now brown petals fell to the ground and the stem disintegrated in his hand.

"But I digress. Do you know why I'm here?" he asked with a murderous smirk.

She shook her head yes even though she was extremely confused.

"You owe me."

"But I've never even met you." she heard herself say.

"665 Witchduck Road, Barrington, New Hampshire, oh three eight two five."

"Neighbor of the beast, eh?" her voice commented with a mind of its own.

"Repeat it." the man commanded and she did.

"Good. Remember, I'll keep my word if you do."

"Okay then." she nodded, having no idea what she was agreeing with.

The man offered his hand to her and said, " Ahtl tlacheenollee."

She took his hand and said, "Fire and water, flood and flames."

Then she woke up a sweat.


	2. Chapter 2

Cruel Fates

Julia Stormson woke up from some kind of nightmare she almost couldn't escape. She knew it was vividly real and she strained to remember it but she simply could not recall what it was about. Looking over at the other side of the bed she saw it empty as it normally was on any given day. Her man woke up early whether it was a weekend or not.

It had been nearly two years since they first met. Two years since her life was turned upside down and then neatly placed back right side up as if nothing had happened. It had taken her years but she could walk down the city streets and a majority of the time not worry about demons leaping from the shadows at her. Such was the everlasting effects of visiting that sleepy town where so much of her life had been decided.

It began innocently with a strange letter that showed the orphan girl, now all grown up, her birth parents in a long lost newspaper clipping decades old. To this day she still didn't know who sent it to her but it changed her life forever. It led her to Silent Hill and a strange guardian angel of a man that called himself Nobody. After enduring horrors beyond imagining she faced the person who killed her parents and struck him down. In her wildest dreams she would not have suspected the culprit to be her own long lost brother.

Leaving Silent Hill and Nobody, who revealed his name to be Victor Rosencrantz, she almost immediately decided to return. If her story was surreal Victor's was simply horrific. After losing his mother in a fire he returned to Silent Hill to find the town changed into its wavering reality. A mere youth he decided to stay and for years he lived alone in a place most people wouldn't visit twice for a million dollars. He had saved her life multiple times and she could not just leave him there. Besides, he was cute in a dark and brooding way.

After smoothing out things back in the real world she entered a harsh martial arts program that focused on real combat experience. She was almost always shorter and lighter than her opponents which had its strengths and weaknesses. Thankfully her body was somewhat prepared for the rigors of fighting due to near daily trips to the gym. It didn't prepare her for the bruises and soreness but Silent Hill had prepared her for much worse. After months of rigorous training she gained a decent skill set and enough knowledge to choke unconscious a 250 pound man. Along with regular trips to the range she felt confident in a return trip.

Getting Victor to leave was no easy task. He had been living there for nearly a decade by himself and had adjusted to his hermit lifestyle. Though it took much argument, cajoling, promising and threatening he reluctantly agreed to leave his home and, in her mind, prison. Since she had made him come back to the real world Victor's physical appearance gradually changed. His thin face and somewhat sunken features had filled out to a healthy amount. The pale skin that only added to his unusual looks had been replaced by a much more pleasing fleshy tone. He was still somewhat awkwardly skinny and was socially inept but coming along nicely.

The largest change of all however has been his reintroduction to human necessities. During his long stay in Silent Hill, Victor had shed the need for food and barely slept to no ill effect. A few months after leaving with her those needs slowly came back to him. The first few weeks of were the worst for the both of them. Like a caged animal he would be restless but unable to rest. Food tasted strange to him and most of the time would vomit it up a couple of hours after eating. The parallels to recovering from drug addiction were uncanny and at one point she had to physically stop him from returning to Silent Hill.

Eventually they were able to overcome the obstacles and have a relatively normal life. It was difficult getting him to open up about his thoughts and even more difficult to explain how she was romantically attracted to him. In some ways he was very much like a boy that had to be shown what to do with a woman. It had led to many a sweet, endearing experience and Julia considered herself lucky despite all the awful things that had happened to her.

Sitting on the couch she channel flipped and generally wasted time sipping coffee. Life was good, simple and other than her continued training uneventful. How strange it would be that this was pleasant for her. She thought of this now as she heard keys jingle and Victor came through the door.

He had a large bouquet of flowers in his hand. There wasn't a special occasion today that she knew of and Victor wasn't the spontaneous flowers type. "Good day." he said with a smile.

"Hello, hello. Roses?"

"Aye, picked them up on the way home. What do you think?"

"Roses are nice. Very classy." she said happily. "Is there a reason?"

"You know, no. I saw them and for some reason I just wanted to get them for you."

"How thoughtful! I'll have to arrange them. I always liked the way roses look as decorations."

"Yeah, especially in a wreath."

For some reason that triggered a memory. The dream! The roses that lined her casket and that strange conversation with the speaker. "Yeah…" she trailed off as the details of that unusually vivid dream came tumbling back to her.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"No, you just reminded me a of a dream I had last night."

"Ah. I have weird ones sometimes too. Last night I had an odd one." Victor said as he put down his things.

The TV continued to babble about nothing particularly important and Julia was half listening. She was still trying to recall the exact details of her dream which was more strange the more she remembered. "Mine was pretty trippy. I was at this funeral that turned out to be for us. Which didn't make any sense because I was standing right there while I was being mourned but anyway there was this weirdo priest that was babbling on like a lunatic. I can't even think of what he was saying but I just know it didn't make any sense."

"Was he wearing a collar?" Victor asked.

"What?"

"The priest. Did he have a collar?"

"Uh…no I don't think so." she said after recalling the fuzzy memory.

"Ah. Sorry, continue."

"Well that was about it. He kept saying weird stuff and making me repeat it."

"Like what?"

"You know, I don't remember. It was an address or something." she said after digging into the memory.

"665 Witchduck Road?"

"Uh-"

"Barrington, New Hampshire?"

"Wha-"

"03825?"

"How…yeah. That was it. How did you know?"

"I had the exact same dream, I think. Only I was walking around with a woman that wasn't you."

"And I was with a man that wasn't you." she breathed.

A minute or so passed before she realized the TV was still blaming numbers for something. Julia slowly walked over and shut it off before turning back to Victor. She was half expecting him to yell 'surprise!' and show her where the camera was. He didn't.

"What is it supposed to mean?" She asked.

"I think…he wants us to do him a favor." Victor said hesitantly.

"Who?"

"The priest with no collar."

"I'm sure you're going to say something that makes that statement less crazy." she huffed.

"The man in the dream is real. I've encountered him a few times…in that 'place' we first met…" A cold pit settled into Julia's stomach at the hint of where this conversation was going.

"I'm still waiting on that not so crazy explanation." she managed.

"It wasn't a dream Jewel." he called her the pet name he only did when he was in trouble or trying to not get into trouble. "It was a summons. It wasn't meant for you. It was meant for me."

The knot in her stomach tightened but she refused to say the name out loud. "That 'place'…does it ever end Victor?"

He thought a bit before speaking which never a good sign. "I've read that people in New Mexico have a saying. It only applies to a certain mountain there that is unlike anywhere else. It goes 'those who were born under the mountain eventually return to the mountain.'"

"Are you trying to say that…town…is our mountain?"

"The first breath of air we ever tasted had the smell of the trees and Lake Toluca on it. Like it or not it's a part of us." he said dramatically.

"You've thought about this before." she snapped.

"I have." he admitted. "But not the way you think. Part of me belongs there Julia. It always will. This isn't something we can just toss away and hope that it doesn't come back."

"So you're going? Just like that?"

"A dream could be a simple dream. I have a feeling that if the priest with no collar doesn't get what he wants he'll send a more tangible message."

"What? You telling me that guy was real?"

"Was, is, isn't, wasn't." Victor said cryptically. "Let's just say we don't want anything to do with him. I can only hope he would not or could not reach us out here. So far from...that place."

* * *

Hours passed while they drove on in silence. The bald guy was at the wheel while the two other agents sat in the passenger and rear passenger seats. There was little conversation and it was hushed between the two on the right. They probably thought baldy was creepy just like Chuck did. It was quiet now since he gave up trying to tell them what a colossal mistake this was. There was nothing he could do from his cage and glumly he watched the dull scenery go by.

They were on the highway for a while but turned off onto a few single lane country roads before long. The ride had been at least four hours long as best he could tell when they stopped for gas and refreshments. No one offered him a drink even though it was fairly hot in the van. Byrd didn't move at all since sitting down in the driver's seat and frequently checked the mirrors.

Back on the road it was more of the same. The sound of a popping tire suddenly broke the monotony and silence. Chuck was alert as Byrd was forced to pull over onto the side of the dusty, single lane highway.

"We got a spare?" the man in the backseat asked.

"Nope, took it out when installing the cage back there." said the agent in the passenger seat.

"Call base?" The man in rear suggested.

"No." Byrd said with a clear tone of command. "Let's see the damage first."

The bald man climbed out of the van and the agents shared a look before doing the same. Chuck knew he was right about something going on between the three agents that wasn't normal. He couldn't tell much else while they huddled around the rear left tire. The two agents hunched down to inspect the flat while Byrd stood passively behind them. His face was stony as he looked down both stretches of the deserted highway. Chuck did the same for some reason and he saw nothing coming in either direction for miles. Movement pulled his gaze back to the window as Byrd pulled something shiny out of his jacket.

The sound hit his ears first. It was the unmistakable blam! of a silenced gun shot. The sound was almost as loud as a normal shot only from a distance it would not be heard as easily. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as Chuck's eyes focused on the silvery gun glinting in the sunlight. Before the sound of the first shot left Chuck's ears there was another. Something fell against the van and Byrd quickly scanned the highway again. With nothing in sight the bald killer fired downward another four times in rapid succession before putting his gun away.

Chuck backed up to the other side of the van as if somehow this would help. His heart was pounding loud in his ears and he realized that he was completely at the mercy of this murderer. He watch partially frozen in horror as Byrd methodically cleaned up the evidence of what had just happened. Bending down past the window Byrd presumably pulled the remains of the agents around to the other side of the van. He opened the rear passenger door and hauled the bloody bodies of the two other agents onto the van's floor. There was no emotion or hesitation in his actions that Chuck could see. There was only a businesslike behavior identical to someone taking out the trash or vacuuming an office. Chuck was fairly certain he would be joining the dead agents as soon as Byrd finished getting them covered up with blankets.

Once the corpses were hidden to his satisfaction Byrd produced a spray bottle and rag from somewhere in the back seat. He cleaned the outside and inside of the van with the rag until all spots of blood were gone that his prisoner could see. Seemingly done with the task for now the killer agent shifted his attention to Chuck. Those passionless eyes locked in on him and didn't let go as Byrd moved to the back of the van. Chuck squirmed against the mesh barrier between him and the rear seat. He always thought his death would somehow be more grand than this as Byrd opened the rear doors.

"You must be thirsty." Byrd said calmly. He was holding a bottle of water in his hand that Chuck didn't notice until now.

"Are you going to kill me?" Chuck quivered.

The bald man tossed the bottle into the space between them and it rolled to a stop at the former inmate's feet. "Drink up." Byrd said casually but it felt like an order. Not wanting to anger his captor in the slightest Chuck picked up the bottle. The seal was still on it so at least he knew that it wouldn't be death by poison. Taking off the cap with shaking hands he drank as much as he could on one breath.

Byrd wordlessly shut the doors again and returned to the driver's seat. They turned around and were heading the way they came when Chuck began to feel dizzy. It might have been the heat finally getting to him or the stress but for whatever reason the feeling grew stronger. His eye lids began to fall down on their own accord and he slumped to the bottom of his cage. Trying to arrange himself comfortably on the hard floor Chuck wearily tucked his arm into a pillow as best he could. Drifting in and out of consciousness the steady hum of the van's engine lulled him into a deep slumber.

* * *

Victor Rosencrantz left his real sword tucked carefully away in a closet. It was, like most thing he owned or used, not especially beautiful or even downright ugly. Although he could appreciate aesthetic qualities in objects he never looked for it in his possessions. The only thing that mattered was functionality when it came to his tools, weapons or armor.

This was especially true of swords. Many were unfit for the rigors of actual combat and merely for show or to enhance the owner's ego. Elegant, flawless blades might be works of art but rarely were they anything more. There were of course ones both pleasing to the eye and deadly to an opponent but these were not easy to find. The search to find such a weapon was the reason Victor found himself facing a squat, powerful opponent trying to hit him with a piece of wood.

Sensei Mori Ujio took his craft as seriously as any of his ancestors. Victor often thought that if his instructor been born in a different century that instead of teaching kendo he'd be splitting skulls. The older Japanese man's weathered and wise looking visage was hidden underneath the traditional face mask that made them both as featureless as mannequins. It was a thought that Victor had trouble shaking at first.

The sensei's shinai or wooden practice sword was a flurry of action one moment and still as a statue the next. Although Victor couldn't see his teacher's face he knew that it was a walk in the park for the older man. His student on the other hand was struggling just to keep his own shinai in his hands. The sword master often thought it was funny to disarm his pupil mid-fight which abruptly ended the bout.

Long years living in Silent Hill gave Victor plenty of experience with the sword but none facing an intelligent and skilled human opponent. He had spent the better part of ten years with his home made sword as his main weapon against the monsters there. Fortunately the weren't exactly bright or even fast most of the time. As a result his reflexes and killer instinct were finely honed but his sense of strategy was lacking.

Easily batting away Victor's shinai the sensei struck quickly across his chest. It was a common attack and Victor dodged the blow by quickly side stepping. Apparently his teacher was expecting this and followed with a blinding strike to Victor's slightly off center abdomen. Even though he tried desperately to parry the attack was too fast and soundly struck him in the ribs.

The lesson was over then and Victor returned to his spot facing the sensei. The bowed to each other and once more to leave the training area. Retreating to the back of the room they removed their gear and assembled it neatly into piles.

"Victor! Slowly but surely you're improving!" Mori boomed.

"It doesn't feel like it sensei." he said with his ribs still tingling.

"Don't measure your progress with bruises. Measure it with the bruises you don't have." Victor nodded absently while his mind drifted off into a memory of his first few months in Silent Hill.

"Do you know why I accepted you as my student?" Mori suddenly asked. The direct question snapped him out of reverie and caught him more off guard than the blow that made his ribs ache.

"I uh…no." Victor said truthfully. "When I first met you it was merely to track down a quality sword. When I asked about lessons and you told me your fees I thought it was about money."

"And now?"

"I don't think you care about the money. I think you want to pass your art on more than anything. But I don't see myself as someone that could do that. I still don't have a clue why you would accept me over someone else."

"When you first came here I got the feeling that you were lost." Mori explained. "No aims, no goals, no reasons to improve yourself. What most people don't realize is that martial prowess is a side effect of training. The true benefit lies in the heart and not the speed of your hands. I accepted you because you needed it, Victor." The Silent Hill native didn't know what to say to that so he could only nod dumbly.

"You have a big cloud hanging above your head." Mori continued. "I don't know what it is but its obvious to anyone that cares to look. Your mind is preoccupied with it and your training suffers. You have to take care of it if you want to move forward with your lessons."

"Are you kicking me out sensei?" Victor said, shocked.

"No, far from it. Think of it as a homework assignment. You are always welcome in my dōjō. But you'll never be able to focus with whatever it is that keeps you day dreaming in the middle of lessons."

"What if I can't?" Victor asked glumly.

"You will. That or die trying." he smiled.

Victor did not want to think of just how accurate that statement might have been.

* * *

"Did you tell him what was wrong?" Julia asked incredulously.

"Not exactly." Victor said as he sipped the hot chocolate from the overpriced coffee cup. They were sitting under an umbrella in front of a local beverage dealer. It was a typical gray afternoon with a warm breeze and smell of rain on the air. This spot happened to be Julia's favorite and he could never figure out why. He never liked the taste of coffee but apparently that was all people of the city drank. It seemed acceptable to get a chocolate milk instead although somehow if it was heated it was no longer a child's beverage.

"He said I have to unburden myself with the cloud over my head or something to that effect. I just said my hometown kept trying to get me to go back."

"Yeah, I bet he had no idea you meant that literally."

They sipped their drinks while Victor tried to think of something to change the subject. Julia had the slightly vexed look on her face that indicated he should not attempt to prod her further without incurring her wrath. He was about to say something when a woman walked up to their table.

She was dressed in tight but nonrestrictive clothes with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. Dressed all in black and curiously wearing leather gloves she was decently attractive and well muscled. There was something about the look in her eyes that he didn't like. There was a dullness or sadness that made her stare hollow.

"Can I help you?" Julia asked politely.

"You both have been summoned." she said in a almost phone sex operator voice. It didn't match her dispassionate stare at all and Victor had a bad feeling about her.

"Excuse me?" Julia said quizzically.

The mystery woman pulled a bulging envelope out of her pocket and with a gloved hand slammed it down on the table. She looked directly at Victor and said, "Summoned by you know who." Without another word she walked away from them down the sidewalk and out of sight.

"What in the nine hells was that all about?"

"I don't know." Victor said but he had an idea. On the envelope was a seal that he had not seen in years.

"What's this all about?" Julia said and reached for the small package. Her curious face turned surprised as she pulled a thick stack of hundred dollar bills out. They were crisp, new and probably sequential. Flipping through the stack her eyes rapidly flicked back and forth.

"There's like, five grand here." she said in disbelief.

"Anything else?"

"Oh. Yeah." Julia pulled out a small, ornate business card. He could see printing on one side of the card before she held it up to her face. Suddenly her tone sharpened dramatically and she looked up at him with a deadly serious glance.

"I think its for you." she said flatly and handed him the card.

The print was very fine and the card material expensive. It had the address from their shared dream printed on the side he was holding. Flipping it over it read simply, "You owe me, Victor Rosencrantz."

"Tell me that isn't what I think it is, Vic. Tell me if it is that you're not going. Tell me you're not going." Julia said in a rush.

"We…have to talk." he said with a sigh.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Strange Threads We Weave

"I'm going to tell you a story." Victor began.

"But-"

"Now now, don't interrupt. You can ask questions afterward.

"Ahem. There once lived a prince who dwelt in a magic castle all by himself. He had no family, no friends, no servants or subjects but he loved his home and never left the lands around it. One day he was walking in his territory when he chanced upon two strangers. The prince had never seen other people in his lands before and needless to say the strangers were just as shocked to see him. Being a well mannered host the prince offered the strangers shelter and eagerly listened to what they had to say. It turned out they were ambassadors from the neighboring kingdom and were simply there to collect lumber.

"They beseeched the young prince to come back with them to their kingdom and meet their king. At first the prince was hesitant to leave his castle. After all, he had been there for years on his own without any help and lived quite well. But the ambassadors insisted that they be allowed to repay the prince's kindness. Perhaps it was loneliness but eventually the prince relented and joined the ambassadors on their journey home.

"Now the foreign king was a dangerous and cunning man but the prince was naive to such things. The king greeted him warmly in his magnificent hall and held a great feast in the prince's honor. Impressed by the king's generosity the prince talked with him as he did with the ambassadors. The king spoke of taking the prince in and teaching him arcane magic as well as to learn to hear the whispers of the , perhaps it was loneliness or the silk tongue of the foreign king and his promises of power but for whatever reason the prince agreed to stay.

"True to his word the king sent the prince to his wizards to learn at the feet of the masters. Years fell off the calendar while the prince delved deeply into realms he never knew existed. The king's men were tough on the prince and even branded his wrist with the king's emblem to make him prove his devotion. In truth the prince did not care for the king's aims or enriching his coffers; he merely wanted to continue his studies in the arcane.

"It was years before it was clear to the prince that he had been blinded by his pursuit of knowledge. The king was expecting something in return for all of the time the prince spent there. The training facility was little more than a prison and the prince realized that he would never be allowed to walk out anytime he pleased. The king was planning on using the prince as his own personal assassin whether his subject wanted to or not. Evil, binding magic would ensure the prince's obedience to the king and rob him of free will. Cursing his own ignorance and blindness the prince sought of a way to escape and get back to his castle.

"Fortunately the king's wizards had been planning to return to his homeland for some time. It seemed that the special paper they wrote their spells on came from the trees around the prince's castle. He saw in the trip his chance to escape once entering his old lands but the wizards would be on their guard. Stealing a handgun the day before the trip he listened as they told him of their mission. They greatly feared the entire area due to the two demons that apparently lived there. The prince had never seen such things during his time at home but the wizards assured him they were all too real.

"One was an ancient demon that had always been a part of the land's history. There was no stopping it, no negotiating with it and it certainly had no mercy. This demon appeared randomly and was to be feared should it show itself. While fearsome and nigh invulnerable the beast was slow. It also picked its targets with no discernible pattern so wizards were not as worried about it as they were the second demon.

"Not nearly as old as the first the other demon was twice as likely to attack them. Though they feared this second demon the wizards believed they had the means to destroy it. The prince had never seen a demon before and through persistent questioning found out more about them. The first seemed to be tied to the town itself. It second had once been a man and in fact a wizard under the king's banner. Decades ago that man had murdered a large number of the king's men and using forbidden rituals shattered the limits of mortality. The demon who was once a man had kept his hatred of the king from his previous life and ruthlessly exterminated any of the king's men he could find.

"So they undertook the dangerous foray back to the prince's realm. Everything was going smoothly as the wizards prepared to cut down the trees needed to make the special paper. There were a lot of rituals involved that the prince watched carefully; he knew that someday he would have to do them on his own. The wizards were quiet and worked quickly as they did not want to be detected by either of the demons. The prince was still trying to look for a way to make his escape when a scream erupted nearby.

"From above a lone attacker dropped down from the trees onto a wizard and killed him on impact. It was already assaulting another by the time the prince knew what was going on. Horrified he watched as the wizards casted spell after spell but none seemed to affect the raging demon. Snapping out of it the prince ran and retreating deep into his lands. He kept going until he could no longer hear the awful screams of the wizards and the sounds of combat. Quite scared and not knowing what to do he ran into a building and started locking doors behind him. Huddling in a darkened room he stayed as quiet as possible as he tried to get his labored breathing back to normal. Surely there was no way to know where he had gone?

"There was apparently. It wasn't long before there was a deafening crash followed by another. The last door the prince cowered behind exploded off its hinges and behind it stood the demon. Now that the prince could get a good look at the demon it appeared no different then a normal man. Blood dripped from soaking red hands and the monster wore a maniacal grin that made the prince squirm. Using a spell he had been taught by the now dead wizards he read from the special paper and put up a protective barrier.

"The spell enacted a force field of sorts that no monster could pass. The demon calmly approached and gingerly touched the barrier that should have burned him alive. His crimson hands tapping on the unseen wall the demon seemed to be searching for something. Suddenly it punched at the air and rent a hole in what was supposed to never break. The paper the spell had been written crinkled on its own in a few places as the half frightened, half amazed prince looked on. The demon began assaulting the gap and the paper further deformed itself until the barrier shattered. The prince was left with nothing in between himself and the demon but a paper that had simply shredded itself in his hand.

"There was only one last thing the prince could do to save himself. From his coat he pulled out the handgun meant to free him from the king's grasp. Not knowing if it would even work he shot hysterically at the now smirking demon. Ducking and side stepping almost faster than the prince's eye could follow like a mad ballerina the assailant closed the distance between them. None of the bullets hit and in a heartbeat the demon was upon him. The gun was ripped from the prince's hands and he was lifted clear off the ground by one of the demon's steel cable hands.

"The prince was done for and he knew it. All he could think to say was, "Why?" before he air was choked out of him.

"Why?" repeated the demon. "Know you not your sins?"

"The prince tried to shake his head no but it didn't work very well. The wet, still warm blood of the wizards was being ground into the prince's throat while his attacker seemed to be thinking. Suddenly the demon pulled him close so that they were face to face. The prince looked into a pair of eyes that could have belonged to a corpse. Unblinking, unmoving the demon held the prince there as if it was inspecting a rag doll. The creature's breath was hot and rank of carrion which would have made the prince vomit on the spot if he could breathe.

"Without warning the creature dropped the prince to the ground who sputtered and gasped for breath. The demon stood over him without moving like an evil statue. When the prince could talk he explained that he was only interested in learning the king's magic and was never believed in their cause. An eternity seemed to pass until the demon spoke again and it said, "Son of Man, thou speaks of truth. Thine ignorance be no excuse but I will give thee a chance to redeem thyself."

"The demon lifted his hands to the air and red spatter fell onto its face. The prince was confused, scared and utterly fascinated by the baffling monster before him. The demon suddenly dropped down to a crouch and was again face to face with him. It said, "I will stay my wrath but thy life belongs to me now. Should I have need of aid thou will come to my beckoning. Pledge this and thy metal heart shall beat another day."

"The prince didn't know what to think of all this but if it meant the demon wasn't going to kill him then he would go along with it. He agreed and the demon nodded.

"I have one more favor to bestow upon thee. Hold out thine arm."

"Why?" the prince asked.

"Fool boy," the demon said with a smirk, "that mark be a tracking rune they carved unto thee."

The prince looked at his arm in shock. Using the mark on his arm the king could have found him no matter how far he chose to run.

"But fear not o' scorched leaf. I have medicine."

"The demon produced a wickedly sharp blade and a serrated smile that made the prince sick. There was nothing else he could do. He held out his arm."

* * *

The bumps of an uneven road unceremoniously rocked him out of sleep. It was dark but light crept in from the corners of his prison and Chuck realized he was in a trunk. The after effects of whatever he had been given made his mind sluggish and head heavy. Folded on itchy lining his limbs were cramped and ached after being stuck in the small space for who knows how long. It took him a moment to realize that his hands had been bound at the wrists. It was likely the work of the bald man who had brought disorder to his orderly little world.

Byrd! Chuck would have bolted upright if he could. The menace of a man was probably driving the car that held him at that very moment. None of it made sense to Chuck and even why he was still alive was a mystery. Byrd had murdered what were supposed to be FBI agents right in front of him. They were all convinced Chuck was someone he wasn't and that was likely Byrd's doing as well. There was no money it or useful information that Chuck had worth killing over. There had to be something in it for the bald one unless the man was totally insane. Having seen a lot of insanity the mental patient could tell that Byrd was all too rational.

By the rocks hitting the underside of the car and the bumpiness of the ride Chuck could tell that they were on a dirt road. It was day judging for the light coming in and there was no sound of other traffic or ambient city noise. They proceeded for what had to have been the better part of an hour and Chuck was beginning to wonder exactly where he was being taken. The temperature had dropped and whatever heat he could feel was coming from the car's cabin. What madness was he involved in now?

It was hard to tell but at least another hour passed before the car began to slow down. They came almost to a full stop before crunching onto a bed of rocks and finally parking. Voices were coming from nearby but the words were too muffled to make out. The rumbling engine of the car he was in was shut off and a door opened. The voices stopped and Chuck heard the driver of his car crunching towards the trunk where he lay. In a moment a key slid into the trunk's lock and it flew open. Blinding light poured into unready eyes and he attempted to shield himself from whatever was coming at him. Strong hands hauled the human package out of the trunk and Chuck blinked while blurred images came into focus.

* * *

Wine poured into a crystal clear glass and swirled around in a red whirlpool. Julia watched it for a moment before quaffing half of the contents. Liquor was never much her style anymore but at the moment she wouldn't mind knocking back a shot or three. Her man was still in the living room on the couch; she didn't know what to do with him. The story she had heard was unsettling to say the least but all this at once was almost more than she could take. Years had passed pleasantly without them ever talking about that place. Even now she could see the empty mist and haunting shadows that always seemed to be watching your every movement. It made her shiver thinking about the horrors she battled just trying to make it from one end of the town to the other.

The first thing to do was to calm down and assess the situation. Bringing the wine bottle to the living room she was careful to set her drink on a coaster. No sense in simply throwing caution to the wind. "Let me see your arm." she ordered.

Offering her his left appendage Julia grabbed Victor's wrist and turned it up. Just past his palm was a faded and ugly square of a scar less than an inch by an inch.

"I never wanted to know where all your scars came from. I figured it was better that way." she said.

"I'm a bit self-conscious about it." he explained without sounding like it at all.

Taking a deep breath Julia forced herself to ask the next question. "What are you going to do now?"

"Have things to pack and a plane ticket to buy." he said with maddening nonchalance.

"So you're going." she stated angrily.

Victor wrinkled his brow in confusion and said, "We just talked-"

"No, you talked and told me, kind of, how you're mixed up in all this. I don't see how that equals us talking about it."

He sighed and she reached for her wine. Victor stared off into space while she simmered about how thick headed men could be and sipped some liquid courage.

"This isn't something I want to do." he began.

"Liar." she accused bitterly.

"It's true I'd like to go home again but not like this. Not with this hanging over my head. But in the back of my mind I always knew that this would happen. I never thought I'd really be free. Plus... things would have to be pretty bad if he's calling in that favor."

"You don't owe him a damn thing!" Julia protested. "Your little deal was forced to begin with."

"You don't understand do you?" he asked tiredly. "This isn't a back alley handshake agreement or a promise of a friend to come to a birthday party. This is an old world pact. If I don't go when he calls me then he will come for me. For us."

"Are we in danger?" she balked.

"Not yet." he quickly assured her. "I wasn't convinced until that woman showed up. That was him showing me that he knows right where I am and that he can reach out to touch me if need be."

This was a possibility Julia had not considered. She always thought of Silent Hill as being trapped in its own sphere of influence. That it could still go beyond its misty limits was troubling indeed. "Can't we run?" she asked a bit more meekly.

Victor shook his head slowly. "There is no place we can go that he can't find me. I might be able to stay hidden for a while if I had my papers but even those would run out eventually."

"Goddammit Vic," she said in exasperation. "I thought we were out. I thought we were free of this."

"Did you?" he asked absently. "Did you truly believe that there would never be another reason to set foot there? " The question caught her off guard. Perhaps a small part of her never really believed it would be over. She merely wanted it to be but if that was the case then she wouldn't have bothered staying in fighting shape and keeping her aim sharp. Had she too always been prepared to go back? Too mad to even suggest he might have been right she said, "That's it then? You're going?"

"I have to Jewel. For you. To keep you out of harm's way."

"Oh, this is for me now?"

"Yes. You don't want him coming for you and neither do I."

"When are you planning on leaving?"

"Tonight. Now."

"And when are you coming back?" she trembled.

"I…" he started and she knew what he was going to say. Tears began to well up and for once she wasn't ashamed of them.

"I don't know if will be back Jewel…when my debt is paid I will leave one way or the other."

"Did you ever stop and think about me?" she cried and the next thing she knew he was hugging her. She hated crying and especially in front of someone but this time it couldn't be helped. Everything had just hit her all at once and it was overwhelming. Sobbing until there were no more tears time seemed to slide quickly by. As her mind cleared and she focused on the matter at hand Julia was able to think straight. She knew he was going to go and there was nothing she could do to stop him. He had promised her to never set foot in Silent Hill ever again unless there was no choice.

So he was going to go. However, it would not come to pass without certain ramifications. No no, he wasn't going to get off that easily. There were things to do, plans to make, gear to collect and notices to give. The real world could wait while they sorted out their little problem.

"I'm sorry." he whispered softly in her ear as he held her.

Breaking away she wiped his sleeve on her face. "I'll need a day or two to pack and arrange things."

"What? I didn't-" he sputtered.

"Think this through? Break it to me very well? I know that." she said through blurry eyes. "But of course I'm going too."

Victor looked like she had just told him she killed his cat. "But…but...I wanted you to stay here so I would know you'd be safe!"

"Right. And you thought that I'd be happy to sit here and worry while you're out doing who knows what. I don't know who you've been hanging around the last two years that would roll over and let this happen but it isn't me. I'm going and there's nothing you can do about it. Capisce?" she spelled out.

"But-" he started weakly.

"But nothing. If you're willing to go and you expect me to be okay with it then if I was going you should also have to be okay with that."

"Um...what?" he scratched his head.

"Ugh, never mind, just go pack you brute. I have some calls to make."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Cerberus At Your Heels

"The roads here are like fucking mazes." Julia complained again.

Driving was never one of Victor's strongest suits and needless to say spending most of his adolescence in Silent Hill made practicing difficult. Making it her mission to get him acclimated to the outside world Julia made sure he knew how to drive and had a license. That didn't stop him from spending most of his time in the passenger seat despite her best efforts. It did mean that he could at least forage for fast food if he needed to. In many ways living with him was like raising a child.

They were fenced in by trees which blurred by and cloudy sunlight filtered down on them. The roads were empty and somewhere up ahead lay the destination that had been shown to them in a dream. She didn't want to go there, didn't want to be anywhere near that place but it would be worse sitting around at home waiting. The thought of waiting for him to come back when there was no assurance that it would happen drove her crazy. At least this way she knew she was doing all that was possible to help on this fool's errand.

"I miss being surrounded by trees like this." Victor said quietly.

"We have a trees in the city. And the mountains aren't that far of a drive." she offered.

"Aye, I know." he nodded. "It's different when you're hemmed in by them. Like...almost like we're trespassing in their land."

"Is it me or are you getting more philosophical by the day?"

Victor chuckled half heartedly and said, "This left up here should do it." While his driving skills were amateur at best, Julia unconditionally trusted his map reading ability. Victor once told her that if he studied a map carefully he could see it in the physical world as if someone had imposed it on the ground around him. She didn't know if that was true it but his accuracy was astounding when it came to finding his way around.

They turned onto a dirt road that cut a hilly, winding path through the trees. She was forced to slow down to safely stay on the ill kept path. Grass was encroaching on the edges of the road and it was clear no one had been down this way in some time. Nearly ten minutes passed with nothing but foliage going by until a clearing appeared to the left. There was a large, run down house with a small gravel parking space occupying most of the area that hadn't been overcome by trees. Grass grew wild up along the sides of the house and poked out from spots in the gravel. Although it was clear the house hadn't be inhabited for years someone was leaning on a black sedan parked by the front door.

Pulling into the driveway Julia parked a conservative distance from the other car. Yet another person was sitting in the passenger seat of the sedan and while the first person, a man in a trench coat, eyed their approach. He had a hard, weary face but wore an impeccable black suit and tie under his coat. There was something familiar about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on. As she shut off the engine it came to her; Julia was shocked to recognize the man from her dream that she had been at the funeral with.

"Vic, that's the guy from my dream."

"What?"

"The guy I was at my own funeral with. That's him. For sure."

"That's...wait. I remember now. The woman that handed us the envelope the other day was the one from my dream too. She's the one sitting in the car over there." Victor said.

"What do we do?" Julia wondered.

"Let's see what all of this is about." Victor said tersely and opened his door. Climbing out of the rental Julia could see that the man's features seemed to have been made out of stone. A lifetime of stress was carved into his face but behind an alert and sharp gaze lay a toughness that Julia couldn't begin to get a grasp on.

"Are you the welcoming committee?" she asked as her and Victor came to the front of their vehicle.

"Sorry, fresh out of welcome." the man said in a humorless yet somehow sarcastic tone.

"Who are you?" Julia demanded.

Reaching inside his jacket and not so accidentally revealing a gun harness the man produced something small and black that flipped open to reveal a shiny badge. Victor peered closely at it and Julia didn't get a chance to read the name etched into the metal.

"You're a long way from New York, detective." Victor noted.

"I'm just here to keep the peace." the officer said coolly.

"We're not here to cause trouble..." Julia said.

"It's not you I'm concerned about. There's a third party on the way that has a rep you don't want to know about."

"You were in my dream." Julia blurted, immediately regretting it.

If the strange man was at all fazed by the comment he didn't show it. "And you were in mine. And he was in hers." he said, nodding to the passenger side.

"How do you fit into all this?" Victor demanded. "Are you working for him?"

The sedan door opened and the woman from the coffee shop stepped out onto the grass. She was dressed the exact same as Julia remembered with a plain black t shirt that struggled to keep her chest in. The black leather gloves, a no-nonsense pony tail and a massive handgun strapped to her shoulder were clear indications of a person not to be trifled with. She was no more friendly than the first time they had met either.

"Don't worry about what we're doing, Punchy." she said to Victor. "You're on a need to know basis. Just sit there and shut up for now."

"Excuse me?" Julia said and involuntarily cocked her head to the side.

"You heard." the woman said flatly. "Now-"

"Enough, Mona." the detective interrupted. "Something wicked this way comes..."

The low rumble of something in the distance alerted Julia to another car coming down the dirt path at break neck speed. The bitchy Mona woman rested a gloved hand on the butt of the hand cannon on her shoulder and waited with the patience of a viper. The detective took a few steps forward as another black car came barreling down the road. Braking just past the driveway the car backed up into the property alongside Julia's rental.

"Please get behind my car." The detective asked. "You're better off with some cover if things get ugly."

"Say what-" Julia began but Victor was already pulling her along. "What the hell is going on?" she whispered.

"I have no idea." Victor whispered back as he dragged her down behind the sedan. "But if there's going to be shooting, I'd rather be behind here."

Hulking down behind the car they watched intently as the door to the second car swung open. Out stepped a tall, imposing bald man in an expensive black suit and blazing red tie. Surveying the area the bald man wore no expression and seemed unconcerned by the other people present. Buttoning his jacket with a touch of disdain he moved to the rear of his car. Opening the trunk the bald man helped lift a bewildered man in a white hospital jumpsuit out. The confused looking trunk passenger tried to step forward but collapsed onto the gravel. Unperturbed the bald man slammed the trunk closed and regarded the two people standing in front of the other car.

"Here to arrest me?" the bald man spoke. His voice was just as chilling and businesslike as the rest of him.

"Just be on your way." the detective ordered.

The bald man watched them a moment longer before returning to his car. The dazed person formerly riding in the trunk watched the black car slowly pull out of the driveway and take off down the way it came. Julia and Victor came out from their vantage point and the other couple seemed to have relaxed considerably.

"We're done here." the woman said and headed back to the passenger side. The detective sighed and turned to them. "Good luck." he said sincerely.

"With what?" Julia asked.

"I have no idea." he offered before sliding into the driver's seat. The engine of the sedan roared uncharacteristically to life like a muscle car and jerked its way onto the dirt road. Kicking up rock and dust it soon had sped off the way the bald man had gone.

"Well, it's a good thing that wasn't totally freaking weird." Julia commented.

"I think that was just the beginning." Victor mused.

Resisting the urge to slap Victor she turned her attention to the patient struggling to stand up. He was strangely familiar as well and the constant deja vu was starting to annoy her. Still blinking, probably from being closed in darkness so long, the patient seemed to focus on Julia.

"Who are you?" Victor asked, stepping forward but still the patient stared at her.

"Julia?" he stammered at last.

The almost buzz cut short hair and outfit made it hard enough to remember. It seemed like he'd aged a great deal since she'd last seen him but Julia was certain she'd seen this man before. Slowly the long feared memories of her time in Silent Hill swam to the surface and she saw him again as she last did. Slumped up against a padded wall, broken, defeated and possibly insane. Her stomach churned when she realized where this was going.

"My god...Chuck." her voice said.

He still had the curly, matty hair that she remembered but his face had changed quite a bit. Gone was the bad skin and borderline double chin he had sported years ago. He looked at least five years older and a great deal more harried. While he was in much better physical condition dark rings under his eyes betrayed many sleepless nights. While he was currently surprised there was a profound sadness that dominated his features.

The man from a lifetime ago turned his attention to Victor. "And you. Your face is new but I recognize your voice...and your eyes. You're that knight from Brookhaven."

"You two met before?" Julia balked.

"Once." Victor acknowledged.

"He was trading something to the Dark Man, I think, for some info on where you were." Chuck explained but none of it made any sense to her.

"You never mentioned any of this to me." she said to Victor. "Who is the Dark Man?"

For once Victor looked slightly uncomfortable. "He...is the priest with no collar. The one that brought us here. And..."

"And...?"

"He was the one that sent you to the basement in the first place."

"What..." Julia said. In Silent Hill's haunted hospital she had learned where to find the file that nearly unlocked her family history. She had been directed to the find it in the basement by a phone call to a phone with no connections. "That guy was the one who called me?"

"He had to be." Victor nodded. "He knew just where to find you. When I met him he offered to tell me where you were but for a price." Victor reluctantly told her.

"So there was someone pulling my strings...Vic! Do you think he was the one that sent the newspaper clipping?" she exclaimed. She had always assumed that it was the town itself that had sent her the letter that began her misadventure in the first place. To think that there could have been more to the story was a major revelation.

"I wouldn't put it past him, Jewel. That man seems to have no reason to his actions. Meddling with people is definitely his style but I've no idea why he does what he does."

"That makes two of us." Chuck chimed in. "He kind of saved me a bunch of times...I still don't know why."

"Is there a reason you're in a jumpsuit with your hands tied together?" Julia asked.

"Eh..." Chuck said. "That's kind of a long story. My legs are still asleep and I can't feel my hands. Any chance you could free me? I'll tell you everything."

Victor glanced sidelong at Julia who shrugged. Flipping open a pocket knife Victor assisted Chuck to his feet and sawed through his bonds. Rubbing feeling back into his hands the freed man rubbed his eyes. "Can we sit inside? Then maybe you guys can tell me what the hell is going on."

"Actually we were hoping you could shine some light on what's going on." Julia said.

"Oh. Not really no." he shrugged. "Let's sit down."

* * *

Heading into the squat hut the door nearly came off the hinges just from opening it. The inside of the house was thoroughly dilapidated and creaked with nearly every step. The walls were blank though it was clear someone long ago had pictures on them from the stained, white squares dotting the off white wall. There was a questionably sturdy staircase right at the entrance and doors leading to living and dining rooms. Dust seemed to have conquered every inch of the place and rose in anger at being disturbed by their intrusion. Victor went ahead like a wraith and floated through the rooms in search of anything malevolent. His relaxed demeanor told Julia that there was nothing here but an old house.

They congregated in the kitchen where there was a suspiciously well set up table and three chairs. A pale envelope sat on the center of the table. It took Julia a moment to realize that unlike the rest of the house there was no dust coating these particular pieces of furniture.

"Convenient." Was all Victor said.

Chuck shuffled to one of the chairs and plunked down. Whatever had happened to him after she last saw him must have not been pleasant. The man before them was broken, withdrawn and utterly depressed. Was this the same transformation that had happened to her coming out of that place? Pulling up a chair Julia sat down to get to the bottom of it. Victor joined them and pulled the envelope towards himself.

"So..." Chuck started.

"So." Victor said.

"Anyone want to go first?"

"I will." Julia said. "I guess we were never really properly introduced. I'm Julia Stormson. I was an orphan until a few years ago when I learned that I had a family once."

"That's good." Chuck said.

"Yes well...as it turned out I was born in Silent Hill. I lived there until...well there's no easy way to say this. My older brother murdered my parents and fled town with me."

"Oh god!"

"Yeah..." Julia agreed. "He dropped me off at an orphanage and spent the rest of his life on the run. He was the reason I came to Silent Hill."

"And...you found him?" Chuck asked.

"I did." Julia confirmed.

"What did you do?"

"I stabbed him in the throat with a knife." Julia said and her stomached knotted itself a little tighter.

"Oh my..."

"Then I left." she said as she briskly moved past that. "I returned only once to collect Victor here. We've been living together for the last two years."

There was an awkward silence as she became introspective. Julia had never before had to tell another soul about what happened other than Victor. It didn't cast her in a particularly positive light when she said it all out loud.

Victor saved her from her own thoughts as he cleared his throat. "We never were introduced either. I'm Victor Rosencrantz. I was born in Silent Hill too. I lived with my mother in Vermont when she and my dad split up. She uh...died in a fire."

"I'm...I'm sorry." Chuck said.

"It's all right. After the fire I had a large inheritance but I didn't know what to do with it. I was supposed to be a ward of the state but I ran away. Ran to the only place I could think to go."

"Silent Hill." Chuck concluded.

"Aye. The town...was no longer the place I was born. It was something else. But I made my home there for years. Nine, to be exact."

"You live there for nine years...?" Chuck gaped.

"Aye. I met an old, old religious order that taught me about Silent Hill and its magic. I used to work for them but I escaped. Our...mutual acquaintance kind of freed me. So I owed him. That's why we're here."

"I think I get it."

"Your turn." Julia said. "What happened to you? Last time I saw you you pulled a gun on me."

"Ah, yes." Chuck recalled. "You missed it. About ten minutes before you came I thought I saw my parents. They turned out to be these yellow slimy things that tried to eat me."

"Oh!"

"Yeah, sorry about that. I thought you were another of them."

"How did you come to be in Silent Hill in the first place?" Victor asked. "What is your association with Nothing?"

"Nothing?"

"The 'Dark Man' as you call him."

"Oh..." Chuck said. "Well...Christ I don't even know where to begin."

"Start before you went to town." Julia suggested.

"Ah, okay. Um...jeeze...like you said, there's no easy way to say this so I'll just say it. I was dating this girl and...well she was cheating on me and I lost it. I...loved her. I killed her in my bedroom."

Julia was taken aback and looked to Victor whose face was as unreadable as stone.

"I snapped, mentally." Chuck continued with some difficulty. "My doctor called it 'an episode of acute primary psychosis'. I fled the house with her body and just started driving south out of Canada. I must have made it past the border into the States here. Um...I invented a friend to help me through it. My doctor says he was a 'fictional construct created to deal with my guilt and anger'. I uh...drove into Silent Hill on accident really. I was lost."

"So...you were looking for your friend..." Julia reasoned.

"Who didn't exist, yeah." Chuck said sadly.

"Only he did in Silent Hill, didn't he?" Victor asked.

Chuck looked taken aback. "How..."

"Did I know?" Victor asked. "I know my home well. I know how it takes what you think you want and makes it more real than you wanted."

Julia looked at Victor but he was positively impassive. She wondered if there was something he wasn't telling her as Chuck slowly continued. "Well I woke up in a hospital but before that I had unconsciously stashed Sandy's locket in a random house and asked the town for help. The Dark Man answered me though I didn't remember when I woke up. I just...kind of went chasing after my own tail. That's when I met the two of you. The Dark Man was leading me around trying to get me to realize what I'd done."

"You did eventually though?" Julia asked.

"Yeah..." Chuck nodded. "I was pretty sure I was stabbed to death by those...things. But I woke up outside Silent Hill."

"And then?" Victor prodded.

"I knew what I had done. I turned myself in for the murder of Sandy Williams. I thought I'd go to prison but they sent me to a mental ward. That's...where I've been."

Julia exhaled a pent up breath. "That's quite a story."

"I know." the other man said. "I've had to live with it all this time. I understand if you guys don't want anything to do with me. I wouldn't. I'd just like to know how and why I was taken from the hospital."

"Taken?"

"Tell us how you came to be here." Victor demanded.

"Uh well...the third Tuesday of every month the Dark Man visited me in-"

"You mean where you were kept?" Victor interrupted. "Outside of Silent Hill?"

"Yeah. I know it sounds weird and maybe he wasn't really there but everyone else saw him and he gave me little presents from my parents that everyone else saw and touched. It had to have been real."

"Impossible..." Victor breathed. "Go on."

"Well, he always came. Two years almost. Then he just...didn't show up this last month. Then that bald guy comes and tells me he's FBI. Takes me away from the ward. Next thing I know he's shot the other FBI agents and thrown me in a trunk."

"The bald guy did?" Julia asked incredulously.

"Yep. That guy's a stone cold killer. Never said a word to me about what he wanted or why he was getting me out. I still don't know what to do. Am I supposed to turn myself back in?"

Julia didn't honestly know how to answer that question. Logic said that was the right thing to do and Chuck, despite his admitted past, seemed to want to do the right thing. He could have run when escaping the town but chose to incarcerate himself. "Vic, what do you make of all this?"

"I'm actually not sure what to think." Victor admitted. "I know Nothing called me and me alone. He probably knew that you would come with me but Charles Taylor here...this is odd. Not to mention the three other people involved seemed to know exactly what they were doing getting us to come here. It sounds like a set up."

"Yeah, that detective and his bitchy friend seemed to know what that bald guy was up to." Julia added. "Do you think this guy told them to find us? To break Chuck out of prison?"

"Mental ward." the former patient corrected.

"Whatever."

"This Dark Man as you call him." Victor addressed Chuck. "Would you say that you are in his debt?"

"I owe him big time." the Canadian nodded. "I can't even think of how things might have gone without him. I'd be dead or worse."

"Then you were called for the same reason I was." Victor surmised. "He's calling in all his debts. Something momentous must be going on in Silent Hill and we're his unwilling pawns."

"How can you be sure?"

Opening the envelope Victor tugged free a tiny card written in the same flowing script as the package they were given at the coffee shop. He laid it out on the table for all to read and it said simply, 'Rosewater'.

"Rosewater?" Chuck asked.

"As in Rosewater Park." Victor explained. "In Silent Hill."

This was no new news to Julia but Chuck looked incredibly uncomfortable. Victor stuffed the note back into the envelope with a distracted look on his face that usually meant he was thinking.

"Crap." was all Chuck could think so say.

"We're going." Victor announced. "I too owe Nothing a blood debt that I wish to see repaid. Once it is done we will leave for good. What say you, Charles Taylor?"

"To be honest I'd rather go back to the hospital." Chuck admitted. "But it sounds like trouble and that can't be good. I have to at least go look with you guys. I mean, I don't really have much to live for. Maybe he meant for me to be your meat shield or something. If you guys are okay with it I'd like to go with you. I don't mind being sent ahead into a dark room or anything like that. I just want to help."

While Julia was disturbed by Chuck's past the more he spoke the more she was sure that he was not the same person that she had encountered years ago. If there was even a hint of insanity she would gladly dump him off somewhere but when he spoke it was not the ramblings of a madman. Besides, who knows what kind of challenges they would face? It would be better to have more people on their side.

"I'm not super psyched to be on this trip in the first place but the more help we have the better. You can come if it's okay with my man here." Julia said.

Chuck regarded Victor who had yet to show the former inmate any emotion. "I don't like your past, Charles Taylor. I don't like your close association with Nothing. But I detect no falsehood in your words. You may accompany us but rest assured: one false step and I will personally end your life."

"Wow. Friendly." Chuck mused. "If that's what it takes to get a ride, okay. I don't blame you for not trusting me but I'll do my best to prove that I'm not crazy anymore."

"Let's get this show on the road then." Julia suggested. "The sooner we get this over with the sooner we can go home."

Reluctantly they all got back into the rental and were soon speeding along the state highway heading north. They only stopped once for supplies before plotting out the course back to where none of them truly wanted to be. It didn't take long for to gas up and gather enough food to fill the trunk. Chuck stayed in the car to not attract attention but on the roads of New England and especially where they were other people were few and far between. Julia was not concerned with being stopped by anyone as she loaded up with as many long lasting food items as she could.

It was still early in the day and she was determined to make it to town with some daylight. There was no good way to enter Silent Hill but at least this way they could see. She wanted very much to be done with this task but also wanted the few more hours they had outside the town to last forever. As the trees passed by any sort of optimism she had slowly faded as they drew closer to their destination. Something familiar, never forgotten and always in the back of her mind began to build: dread.

They didn't talk, unless it was Julia checking her route and Victor answering curtly. Daylight began to wane and the foliage around them grew thicker then it had been the last couple hours. Though he had not said anything the entire trip Chuck suddenly spoke up, "We're close aren't we?"

"Too close. The gates of hell itself beckon." Victor said.

"Oh, way to be melodramatic Vic. Why don't you give a speech about how we're 'plunging into the infinite darkness armed only with our courage' or something like that." Julia snapped. In reality she wasn't mad at him in particular. Well, she was, but not right at that moment. It was more her own fears and desire to be anywhere but where she was.

She spotted the old sign that she's seen years ago.

'Silent Hill: 2 Miles'


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: A Silhouette In The Mist

The sound of his own voice was beginning to annoy him. Hulme droned on about the operations he and his men had been tasked with completing; naturally they went off nearly without a hitch. They'd brought enough bullets and explosives to level a small city if they had to. In fact, leveling Silent Hill didn't seem like so bad of an idea. As it was they were still being paid well by the seemingly endless coffers of their Order employers so this was just a nice thought at the moment.

Concluding with a report of the total wounded Hulme commented that they would soon need to head back to civilization for additional medical supplies and to give headquarters a status report. His employer appeared to not be paying attention but Hulme knew he was absorbing every word and already formulating plans based on them. If nothing else the man was disturbingly efficient.

"Am I to understand Commander that you will be required to leave Silent Hill for a small amount of time?" the bony, gaunt man said without looking up from whatever document he was currently penning.

"Correct. I estimate that in less than a week due to our shortages we will be unable to cover the major injuries my men have received while on assignment. Furthermore CU policy states-"

"Commander." his employer interrupted rudely but finally turning to look at him, "There's going to be a change of plan. From now on anything you need from the mainland will go through _me_. Supplies, ammunition, reports, everything. We can procure whatever you need and your confidentiality is assured. I'm afraid allowing you to venture back on your own will be quite impermissible."

"You..." Hulme trailed off.

"Is that acceptable?" his employer asked.

"Ah...respectfully sir, no it is not." he replied as he gathered his thoughts. "Never mind the serious protocol breach we require contact with our home office to make sure all affairs are in order. Additionally the men have to be allowed some sort of off-site R&R as stated in our contract. Most serious is our need to get our wounded standard medical care instead of our makeshift triages."

"I see." the hawk nosed man said with no trace of understanding or willingness to compromise in his voice. There was something amiss here that Hulme didn't like one bit. "Unfortunately Commander you will have to alter your plans. You see it is not up to us whether or not you can leave. That decision remains entirely with the town."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"That means exactly what I said Commander. No doubt you have noticed the special nature of our home. While we can ship in all of your requisite supplies it will be some time before we can guarantee safe passage for your troops."

"This was not part of our contract." Hulme growled. "You said you could extract us."

"We can extract you at your predetermined exit time as promised. Not a moment sooner or later."

"Why the hell not?" Hulme's blood was beginning to boil but he was a trained officer and let it boil for the time being.

"Hm. How to explain this to you so you'll understand." The robed man crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "Imagine there's a gate around the area that requires a personal pass card which each man must make himself. This card takes years to learn how to make and requires materials from the town itself. This is the only ones of two ways to pass safely in and out of the town. The other you have seen before when you first entered this holy land. We can erect a temporary gate for you and your men to safely pass through."

"Now I won't bore you with the details Commander but that gate was not easy to build. It took months of careful work and as soon as you were safely through we began working on another. But these things take time. My disciples labor to make you an exit gate but it will not be ready until your scheduled departure date. Do you understand now this is not a simple matter of getting a car and leaving? Certain considerations have to be taken into account."

Fuming quietly Hulme seethed at both his situation and his employer. His agitated state made it easy to bring up the next subject of discussion without the usual awkwardness.

"Is there anything else Commander?"

"Yes, actually. I am well aware that I do not have all the facts and I am not questioning your judgment. But from a purely tactical point of view you seem to be stretching my men thin with the extensive amount of guard detail you have. It seems to be an error on your part to have posted us like this."

Instead of stiffening and growing hostile like Hulme expected his employer simply nodded in agreement. "You're quite right. Since you brought it up and to save time in the future let us discuss this matter now." The genial tone sent a chill down Hulme's spine for some reason.

"Your guard detail is extensive for two reasons. One, maintaining the well being of my disciples in of the utmost importance during our mission here." The other man leaned forward as close as he had ever been to the mercenary officer. It was a lifetime of training and operating under duress that kept Hulme from flinching.

"The second reason is just as simple and just as necessary. Should I require it, your men will execute their charges simultaneously. This is to be done quietly and efficiently. I expect no hesitation in this matter from you or your subordinates."

"You want us to terminate the very people we now protect?"

"With extreme prejudice Commander. Should it come to that there will be no time for arguments. Have I made myself clear?"

"Crystal."

"Excellent. You are dismissed Commander."

Bowing slightly Hulme turned on his heel and left and his mind raced with all of the new information he'd just taken in.

* * *

It was Victor that spotted the turn off while it was still a blur in the distance. The large "No Trespassing" signs and chain link fence that had been placed in front of it were flung wide open by some previous passerby. Julia noted that there was nothing inherently menacing about the path ahead of them besides the thick overgrowth on each side of the road. Nothing to indicate the danger that taking it would bring.

The anxiety was starting to build within but she could at least hope that this time things would be different. Victor was alongside her instead of shadowing her movements and her own proficiency in self defense had grown dramatically. Perhaps they would be in and out in a day or two. While she hoping for things that probably wouldn't happen perhaps she had unwittingly won the lotto too.

Making a smooth right onto the road that would take them into town Julia slowed to a halt just after passing the ineffective fence. "It's not too late." Victor said without needing to finish the thought.

"I go where you go." Julia shrugged.

"There's nothing for me back in the real world. I'm ready." Chuck chimed in from the back seat. Pausing a moment to stare at the road Victor waved her onward. Slowly they pulled onto the long since abandoned road and crept forward on the dilapidated pavement.

The thick canopy overhead made for an eerily shaded path. Despite the foreboding foliage there was evidence of others taking the same route. Tire marks, foot prints and even what appeared to be an empty chocolate milk bottle dotted the road. It was certainly not like this when Julia first came through. The first time she was there it appeared no one had visited the town since that ill fated day where everyone had seemingly vanished.

"Vic?" she asked, reminded of something nearly forgotten a long time ago.

"Hmm?"

"Remember when we talked about the day everything seemed to stop in Silent Hill?"

"Yes, I know it well. I've seen it a thousand times on calenders and in books around town. It appeared the citizens ceased to exist on September 12th, 1985. What about it?"

"Did you ever find out what caused it? I mean do you have any idea.

Victor half smiled. "I looked for that answer for many years. I could find no evidence of why that day was any different than another. The time line fits in with our birthdays though."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I was born in '78 and you in '80. Had it been a few years later we may not have existed."

"What are you guys talking about?" Chuck asked.

"Calamity struck on a fall day in 1985." Victor explained. "Whatever happened to the town occurred then and not a single day before."

"So it's been..." Chuck began as he did some quick mental math. "18 years?"

"The anniversary was just weeks ago, yes." the knight nodded. "In all my time I was never able to figure out what happened."

"Why don't you ask the Dark Man?" Chuck suggested. "I'm sure if anyone knows it's him."

"While it has been beneficial to you to rely on such a creature Charles Taylor-"

"Chuck, Vic. Call him Chuck." Julia interrupted him. "Remember we talked about not using people's full names when you speak to them."

"Yes, of course. As I was saying...Chuck...in my dealings with your mad patron he always operated quid pro quo. Something for something. Even if he did know what was behind the transformation of Silent Hill I doubt it would be easy to get from him. I would be required to pay a heavy price and on top of that he has a habit of talking in riddles or utter nonsense."

"I used to think that too. Turns out a lot of it makes sense later on." Chuck retorted.

"After you've found out on your own what he already knew and could have easily explained." Victor shot back.

Chuck shrugged as if this was a minor detail. "I can't think of a better person to ask. Obviously he knows a lot more than any of us about what's happened around here."

"You sound a tad biased towards this guy." Julia noted.

"Maybe I am." Chuck admitted. "Sad as it is he's about the only friend I have. All he did was try to help me."

"Except he never sent you somewhere Pyramid Head was waiting for you I'm guessing." Julia brought up.

"Is that what you call it? That thing with the knife? Huh." Chuck mused. "But you're wrong, I was sent to Brookhaven. I just...managed to sneak by that monster."

"I didn't." she said quietly. The sheer terror she felt all those years ago was unlike anything she had experienced before. The memory of the creature's pale white skin, blood red helmet and wordless menace ranked highest on the list of things she never wanted to see again. Silent Hill itself was just below it as far as her least favorite nightmares were concerned.

"We're here." Victor announced as they pulled up to another set of gates that appeared to be ready to fall over. Just behind them was a rusting bridge that officially marked where the real world ended and Silent Hill began. At some point the gate keeping visitors out had been closed but it seemed like someone vigorously disagreed with this and used a vehicle to convey their dissatisfaction. Scattered metal and paint told the story of a violent collision that occurred some time ago.

Parking the car over to the side of the road Julia cut the engine. Chuck let himself out while Victor let out a pent up sigh and closed his eyes. Unbuckling herself Julia turned to him and rested her hand on his forearm.

"I don't want to be here." he admitted.

"Then why are we?"

"The alternative is worse. I just didn't think I'd regret it this much now that we're here."

"Regret coming you mean?"

Opening his eyes he turned to face her. "The last time we were here before we were lucky. So many times, so many close calls. In Toluca Prison alone...had you been another five minutes, ten minutes...I might have spent the last two years decomposing."

"Don't say that." she scolded. "You aren't. And we're here, alive, with all our limbs intact."

"I just hope everything turns out so fortunately. I mean, not that everything went well before." he lamented.

"You know what got me through it last time I was here?" she asked.

"What?"

"Willpower, bullets and your sword arm. So let's make sure we have all of them huh?"

Hopping out of the car onto the soft earth the smell of the woods and pine needles greeted Julia. Craning her head up to the sunlight she took in the view of the wholesome green and blue before her. It very well may be the last time she saw such tranquil surroundings before being plunged into a world of eternal gray and ashen rain. Struck by a moment of inspiration she walked off the road to a nearby tree and plucked a single, leathery leaf from it. Feeling the one bit of green between her fingers she folded it in half and stuck in her back pocket for good luck.

Ahead the bridge into Silent Hill beckoned. It was an old metal thing that ran over to an innocuous looking patch of grass. That small bit of unruly weeds marked the town's very beginning. Julia decided to inspect the area before heading over just at that moment. Kneeling down by the now useless gate Chuck was examining what was left of it.

"Look like someone blasted right through here. Must have floored it with the gate still closed." he said.

"They had to have been in some kind of hurry." Julia noted. "Can't imagine why someone would be trying so hard to get _into _Silent Hill."

"Me either." Chuck said and picked something highly rusted. Holding it up in front of her she could see that it was the bottom half of a large padlock.

"That's from the gate?"

"I'm guessing." he said. "That's the weird part. You could have busted this thing with a rock if you wanted to. I don't know why they needed to drive a car through it."

"That is weird. Maybe someone was chasing them?"

"Chasing someone into Silent Hill? That doesn't seem right. People around here won't even look you in the eye when you mention this place. I should know."

Victor came up with a couple of backpacks and a long package slung over his arm. He handed Julia hers and she rifled through it for her things. Producing a large hunting knife Julia snapped the its hook onto the top of her pants. From her pack she pulled out a lightly customized M1911 pistol that had been her gun of choice after many hours on the range. Her instructor had suggested a smaller, more compact 9mm for her that would not have quite so much kick but Julia disagreed. The smaller gun might have been more effective against a human where a single bullet could do the job but she always geared for hunting inhuman game.

Pulling on the gun's shoulder strap Julia retrieved a clip and popped it into the gun. Holstering the pistol she turned to Victor who had just finished strapping his old sword to his hip. Fashioned from scrap metal in a makeshift forge it was the epitome of a scavenged weapon. The patchwork blade was crude but had been sharpened to a limb cleaving edge despite the handle being little more than tightly wrapped cloth. Ugly, chipped and heavy it was hardly a visually pleasing weapon but it permanent blood stains on it attested to its effectiveness.

"You guys came prepared." Chuck commented unnecessarily.

"You want a knife?" Julia asked.

"Uh...no, not really. If I have to get that close to something...well I'd rather not. I can wait to find a better option." Chuck said. "You guys can go first."

"Everyone ready?" Victor looked at both of them.

"Uh...what about your car?" Chuck wondered.

"It's a rental, it'll be fine." Julia answered.

"Yeah but like...what if something happens to it while we're gone?"

"Trust me it's okay." she assured him. "Ready when you are Vic."

The three of them walked up to the very end of the concrete where the metal bridge took over. They all stopped just short of stepping onto it by some unspoken agreement.

"No turning back huh?" Julia said with a half-hearted smile.

"Nope, better get a move on." Chuck agreed while not moving a muscle.

After a couple of long moments Victor said exasperatedly, "Oh fine, I'll do it!" and stepped onto the bridge. The two stragglers looked at each other before scurrying to catch up and do what neither though they would ever do again.

* * *

There was little chance of them running into other people but to be on the safe side they kept to the guard rail of the winding path. The sunny day that they had been in up to this point seemed to have slid away when they weren't looking and been overtaken by clouds. Even though they had just begun their climb into the mountains the mist was already beginning to form in the distance. They did not speak to each other and only the sound of footsteps disturbed the quiet.

Twice they passed abandoned vehicles corroding in the middle of the road. It wasn't worth bothering to see if they still worked; machinery was unreliable at best where they were going. It seemed even the inanimate was subject to the ghost town's whims. The wrecks reminded Julia of when her car blew a tire upon her arrival her last visit. It was almost a bad joke now that she was so unaware of what was going to happen to her.

It had been slightly more than a three quarters of an hour when the mist around them began to thicken with every step. Visibility dropped from a couple hundred feet down to twenty or fifteen. They were nearing the halfway point where the road leveled off and then began the descent into the town itself. All Julia could think of was the massive chasms that appeared and disappeared at their own discretion. At any point they could block entrance or exit from Silent Hill though she had the impression that they never stopped anyone from coming in. Incredibly Victor had never seen the chasms himself though he had spent so much time there. That meant to Julia that he simply had no reason to be trapped in the town he had chosen to make his home in.

When the road began to dip down Julia's stomach began to tighten. So far there were no calls, no screams, nothing to indicate there was anything amiss but an abnormal amount of mist. She mentally prepared herself for shapes coming out of the gloom but as they drew closer to the city proper thankfully nothing but empty pavement greeted them. As they neared the city streets Victor made a low grunt that signaled to Julia that he had just made a mental realization.

"What is it?" she asked.

"We're almost there and I can't feel a thing. It's just like I thought. The time away has completely dulled my senses." Victor despaired.

"What are you guys talking about? I don't hear anything." Chuck asked in a puzzled tone.

"It's not a physical thing Chuck it's...actually I don't know what to call it. You can explain better than I can Vic."

"I believe ESP is an adequate term." he explained without explaining.

"ESP...is that like a psychic?" Chuck asked.

"You could say that." Victor shrugged. "After a few years here I began to...be aware of the presence of the creatures that lurk in the mist. When the darkness came and the change happened I'd be able to tell it was coming ahead of time."

"Oh. Kind of like Highlander?"

"What's Highlander?" Victor inquired.

"A movie from the 80s. Vic kind of missed out on stuff like that growing up. He was here, remember?"

"Damn, I forgot. Well I figured guys running around sword fighting would be right up your alley. You should check it out when...when we get out of here..." Chuck finished gracelessly. Trying to change the subject he added, "There's a show called Address Unknown you'd probably like too. It only lasted one season but it was awesome."

"I'll keep that in mind." Victor brushed off as Julia knew he would. He was so closed minded sometimes. Although television never seemed to catch his attention no matter what was on. Perhaps it was a near decade of being a place that's more horror movie than it was location that taught him to devalue fabricated entertainment.

Passing through a short tunnel which they were miraculously not attacked in the trio came out to a steep downhill. It flattened out in a wide ramp that led them to the very outskirts of the misty streets. The quiet menace of the town was the worst part about it. To a new visitor it could have seemed incredibly peaceful or even beautiful. In her mind though a million living dolls, morbid, faceless nurses and always that red pyramid thing lurked behind every corner.

Shaking it off she resolved to stay in the present as much as possible. Ahead was one the first things she saw when entering the town two years ago. It was short, squat structure that hadn't seen better days in decades. Attached was a parking lot that had a few broken down cars from decades ago rusting in disrepair.

"Well, we're here." Julia announced to no one in particular. "Where's this guy at?"

"I don't know but I have to take a major leak." Chuck volunteered freely. "Be back in a minute." he called while heading for the rest stop's men's room. Julia and Victor shared a look but she shrugged, unworried.

* * *

About to stroll into the bathroom Chuck suddenly recalled where he was. Softening his steps as he neared the doorless alcove his never forgotten memories bade him to be cautious. Chuck knew he needed to move quietly, use all his senses and never panic. There probably wasn't anything in the bathroom waiting for him but he would be careful anyway. Many times he had thought about what he would do differently if he ever returned to this place. This time he was aware of what he should be doing to avoid danger and was unfettered by a self provided wild good chase for a man who did not exist.

The walls were grimy and entirely too moist but inside was a mostly clean if florescent bombarded restroom. Bladder nagging at him Chuck nevertheless kicked open the two dingy stalls to make sure they were empty. Getting caught with his pants down quite literally wasn't something he wanted to do at that or any other moment.

After enthusiastically relieving himself of the long car ride's drought he automatically began to wash his hands. It struck him as interesting that there was still some of that cheap, vaguely green soap in the dispenser. It then struck him as humorous to maintain a hand washing policy in a place that would most likely try to kill him before sundown. Splashing water on his face Chuck stared at himself in the mirror a few moments before rubbing his eyes.

"All right Chucky. You're here." he said to himself. "Make this count. Prove that you're worth a damn."

"Good to know." someone said behind him and Chuck nearly jumped out of his skin. Whirling around he found Victor leaning on the wall by the entrance.

"Were you watching me pee...?" Chuck asked, horrified.

"No."

"Well you still scared the crap out of me man. Don't do that."

"Sorry, I tend to sneak up on people without meaning to." Victor apologized. "Light steps I suppose."

"What was good to know?" Chuck asked while trying to shake off the sudden rush of adrenaline.

"That you seem at least a little perturbed to be in Silent Hill. Up until now I didn't think you minded at all."

"This coming from the guy that lived here for that long?" Chuck pointed out. "Anyone would be a little freaked out to be here knowing what we do."

"Indeed." Victor answered coolly.

Drying off his hands on his pants Chuck said, "Well, maybe it was that whole locked up in an asylum for last two years thing. Maybe I'm still a little bit surprised to be out. I mean, I didn't belong there anyway. Well I belonged there just...I don't know. It's strange to know you're crazy but not have any tendencies you can notice other than persistent nightmares."

"'That you notice' being the operating phrase. Rest assured I will notice any." the other man asserted. Victor had no patience for niceties it seemed.

Taking a deep breath Chuck nodded. "You have a right to be skeptical but I'm not in that state anymore. I haven't been since I left here two years ago. I stayed inside because I made the biggest mistake of my life and don't deserve to be free. I turned myself in remember? I made that choice because it was the right one."

Instead of reacting angrily Victor measured Chuck carefully. His expression was blank and his tone was steady. "I just need to know if being here means you'll be back to making such big mistakes."

"Troy is gone. Without that...burning hatred inside of me I have no reason to relapse. There's only...sadness. Sadness and guilt." Chuck said truthfully. It was funny to think that he was still relatively young and could say that about himself. It was just another price he paid for his actions.

"Well that's all fine and good but I'm just letting you know I won't be letting my guard down." Victor stated ever so matter of factly. Chuck had to be just a little inwardly amused at his grand seriousness.

"I think you've lived here too long. Made you paranoid. But go ahead and watch me, I've got nothing to hide." Chuck said and he walked past Victor to leave the rest room. Following behind the knight took his place next to Julia as they walked onto the empty parking lot.

"So." Julia said playfully. "What did you two gals talk about?"

"Hockey?" Chuck offered.

"As if." she snorted.

"Actually, he was asking if I was still crazy." Chuck said and dispensed with the charade.

"Are you?" she asked without a trace of mirth.

"I don't know. I'm here again aren't I? I think we're all a bit nuts for coming back when we know damn well what we're getting into."

"Hmm. Point." she conceded. "Well, this party isn't going to start itself. Shall we go?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Darkening Clouds

Instead of heading to Rosewater park as they had been directed Victor insisted on returning to his old apartment first. He was adamant that it be their first stop before any other and Julia was not going to argue. Adept with the mystic runes the local cult had taught him she fully believed in Victor's ability to keep them safe. If that meant a detour or two she wouldn't mind paying that price.

They stuck to the edges of the buildings where the sidewalk began and kept a brisk but steady pace as they moved deeper into the town. The mist was thick, rolling and ever present just like she remembered. No dark shadows lurked in them so far and Julia was thankful for that. Maybe they had just been lucky so far or maybe there simply were no more monsters here. Logically neither possibility was very likely but as she recalled things didn't turn ugly right away last time. It was only when it was too late did she discover that there was something going horrifically wrong here.

The building was exactly how she saw it in her mind's eye. Flat, unremarkable and falling apart was Victor's chosen residence. Knowing him it was likely the second trait that drew him to the building in the first place. It was so ordinary it seemed like part of the scenery instead of an actual location. The low fence in front of it had toppled over long ago and weeds grew up around the concrete path to the entrance in thick clumps.

Walking up to the front doors they found the building unlocked as if it welcomed the travelers. Julia always fancied that whatever happened to the town occurred during the day when most people wouldn't have a reason to lock their doors. There were simply too many unsecured homes for rational people to leave open at any other time.

The old hinges to the place creaked open louder than she would have liked but the front lobby was empty. Apartments lined the right wall of the hall way before them while the left opened into a stairwell. Light was coming in from above and though it certainly wasn't well illuminated Julia could see just fine. Worrisome shadows still clung to every corner but they safely made their way up the stairs to the second, smaller lobby on the top floor where Victor's rune protected apartment was.

There was a large pentagram looking symbol carved into the floor that she vaguely remembered Victor telling her was for protection. Along the door jam numerous other figures had been etched into the wood but against her expectations nothing decorated the door itself. No figures materialized out of the darkness to attack them. It was almost suspicious to Julia that they had made it all the way here without resistance but perhaps the no more monsters theory held some validity.

Crouching to examine the pentagram looking symbol on the floor Victor traced the lines and strange pictures with his fingers. "Hmm..."

"What is it?" Chuck whispered.

"There's no danger." Victor announced. "But...something's wrong, something's amiss. My seals have been broken."

"Is...that bad news?" Chuck queried as unaware as Julia what that meant.

"Aye." Victor replied absently. "The people that taught me how to use these glyphs are the only ones I know of that can break them. If they finally found this place then they weren't here for a social visit."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like a good thing." Chuck concurred. "What do we do?"

"We shouldn't go in but I have to." Victor decided for them. "There shouldn't be any monsters around but they may have booby trapped the place or left bugs. Stay here and stay quiet."

"Uh..." Julia began, "bugs like termites?"

"Like cameras and microphones."

"Oh." she said feeling completely foolish.

Running his fingers along the indecipherable lettering on the door jam Victor studied the ones that had been cracked in half. Gingerly touching the doorknob as if he was expecting it to be hot Victor slowly opened the door just enough to get through and slipped inside.

Taking a seat on the stairs Chuck let out a sigh. "I hate to be rude," he started, "but what exactly is that guy's problem?"

"What do you mean?" Julia asked though she had at least an idea of what he was talking about.

"He's just so...serious all of the time. Like someone forgot to teach him how to relax."

"You know, that's not actually too far off the mark." she said. "Imagine being just a kid, losing your only parent and then growing up here. I'm somewhat surprised he's as relatively normal as he is."

"Oh. I guess in that case he's adjusted quite well."

"That's what I tell myself." she grinned. Only half joking about Victor she was in truth pleased with his progress absorbing modern culture. The subject in question reappeared a few moments later empty handed and ashen faced.

"They've been here alright." he reported glumly.

"What's it look like?" Julia asked even if his face had her answer written on it.

"They got everything, my papers, my armor, every one of my books, all of it. They might as well of burned the entire building to the ground. Actually, I might feel better if they just did that." Victor complained.

"So there's definitely people around here and they're definitely going to be unhappy to see us if we run into them?" Chuck questioned.

"Yeah, that's one way of putting it."

"Well then I say we get out of here and pick up enough guns and ammo to invade Cambodia." Chuck suggested.

"What? Why Cambodia?" Victor asked with an annoyed face.

"Uh, I don't know, I just picked a random country. It sounded better in my head."

"We've been strangely fortunate." Victor thought out loud. "If we encounter trouble that's too much to handle we can run."

"What if the trouble runs too?" Chuck asked.

"Pick up something along the way then." Victor recommended.

"Like what?"

"I don't know, a plank of wood, maybe a lead pipe?"

"A pipe...a two by four...how do those sound like good ideas? No one in their right mind would run around with something like that as their only means of defense." Julia snorted.

"Don't knock the pipe. I had one once." Chuck said.

"It was just a suggestion." Victor snapped. "I'm sure you could protect yourself very well but that is currently irrelevant."

"Where are we going then?" interjected Chuck in an effort to change the subject.

"Now we should be going to Rosewater Park. If Nothing is waiting for us there at least we can get an idea of why he dragged us here in the first place."

"Fine. Let's go already." Julia grumbled.

"Festina lente." Victor added.

"And...what does that mean exactly?"

"Hasten slowly." Victor smiled without bothering to explain the phrase. "All right, back the way we came." he ordered and they filed down the steps out of the building.

Their walk was just as nerve wracking but also as uneventful as the first as they reached their destination. Rosewater Park was less of an empty space than a stone walkway surrounded by trees and graves. Most of it looked identical and Julia had a hard time remembering if they had just come from one direction or had not yet even been in any one particular area. Thanks to Victor though she knew that he would lead them on a complete search of the time in a timely fashion.

After wandering around the park for the better part of fifteen minutes that didn't seem to be working either. Victor was baffled as to where they were supposed to go so they took a break on one of the ancient benches that had to have been build near the turn of the previous century.

"Thought we would have found something by now." Victor speculated.

"Just seems a little silly to have us come out here and not mention which part of this giant frickin' park to go to." Chuck said.

"Well why don't you call up your pal and ask him then?" Julia suggested wryly.

"Already tried." Chuck shrugged.

Both Julia and Victor stopped and turned back to look at the guileless Chuck. "What?" he asked innocently.

"What do you mean you already tried?" Victor demanded.

"I mean I called for him already. He could explain everything if he were here right? And we wouldn't have to keep walking all over the place."

"Yeah but...how?" Julia wondered.

"Well, before all I would have to do is call for him out loud and he'd show up all of a sudden like he'd been following me the whole time. Or I'd just randomly run into him fighting monsters."

"You saw him fighting Silent Hill's monsters?" Victor said in disbelief.

"Yeeees?" Chuck confirmed slowly without seeing the cause for confusion.

"Not other people – for sure monsters?" Victor pressed.

"Yeah, like, the headless, faceless, slimy things that usually try to kill you. There were groups of them trying to beat him to death and he was back flipping and breaking their bones and shit. I think I'd remember something like that pretty clearly."

"That's...strange." the dark haired knight said. "I don't understand why he would do that. Those creatures pose no threat to him."

"Maybe he just likes to fight." Julia piped up. Both of the men stared at her as if this fact was obvious but neither had thought of it before. "Or not, whatever."

"Well I hope we track him down soon anyway." Chuck sighed. "I think my body is pissed for making it do all this walking when the most it's had to go is down the hall to get some jello."

"They really served jello?"

"Honestly it was the only thing I had to look forward to there. Which is sad because it wasn't really that good." Chuck frowned. "I don't know how you screw up jello. Oh and the visits with the Dark Man. Other then that it was pretty boring."

"About that..." Victor started. "You only briefly mentioned it before. How long had these visits been going on?"

"Oh, since I was locked up." he recalled. "He'd come every third Thursday of the month. Never missed."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"Um...let's see...it's been...two weeks since he missed his last appointment? I don't even know what today is."

"The fourth I think." Julia supplied.

"Oh um...I guess it's been almost a month and a half then since I last saw him." Chuck guessed.

"Anything unusual that last visit? Something he said, something he did?" Victor pressed.

"No...not that I can think of. He's always a bit weird and sometimes doesn't make much sense but he didn't mention anything being wrong."

"So that's at most five weeks he's been absent and at least two." he concluded.

"Well yeah but how – hey that's a big ass crow." Chuck interrupted himself to say. Perched on an arch well worn by time some twenty feet away an enormous crow was not so subtly eavesdropping on their conversation. It was as still as a statue with black eyes fixed in their direction.

"That's not creepy or anything."

"This is a good omen." Victor said mysteriously like he was some kind of shaman.

"How do you figure?" Julia asked.

"Can you think of a time here when you have seen a healthy, normal animal of any kind?" he challenged. Unable to she conceded his point. The large bird cawed loudly at them and leap from the gravestone into the air. It flew just barely out of visible range and landed somewhere nearby. Repeating its loud call it fluttered large wings they could not see.

"Break's over." Chuck announced as he returned to his feet.

"What?" Victor and Julia both said.

Gesturing up at the open air in the crow's general direction he said, "Let's follow this guy. He seems to know what's up."

"You can't be serious." Victor balked.

"Of course I am." the other man said as if Victor were being silly. "If the Dark Man isn't going to come himself he would have sent someone else to do it for him. Or something in this case."

"Your faith in him is unfounded, Charles Tay- Chuck." Victor corrected himself. "If he didn't have something to gain from manipulating us he wouldn't have bothered in the first place."

"Maybe that's true and maybe it isn't." Chuck asserted. "But he's never done wrong by me and never did anything but try to help. You do what you want to. I'm following that bird." he said while pointing at the mist. Watching him set out in the crow's direction Julia raised her eyebrows at Victor.

"We going to follow him?" she asked.

"No. Not yet." her man replied. Listening to the sound of Chuck's footsteps they waited as he walked farther away. On some unseen cue Julia heard wings flapping again in the mist. After a brief pause some where farther away the crow cawed again.

"Damn. It's probably leading us. Let's go." Victor said and they quickly followed the sound of footsteps to catch back up to Chuck. Snickering to himself the smug Canadian led them towards the large bird who would take off only to caw at them again from some other vantage point.

"Hey there fella, are you showing us the way or getting us more lost?" Chuck called out. The bird merely cawed back and again soared out of visible range while they picked their way through the park. The three of them followed it to a particularly large arch way where the crow hopped excitedly back and forth.

"I can't tell if this thing is leading us somewhere or it's just trying to lure us into standing underneath it so it can poop." Julia commented. "What's so special about this place anyway, Vic?"

"It's an old sculpture park. It's been here since the 1800s." he answered.

"Whoa. How do you know that?"

"I've been here quite a few times. Plus it says so on the plaque right there." he pointed.

Engraved on a long unpolished brass plate set into the arch were the words, 'Rosewater Park est. 1845'. "Oh. Right." she said.

"Hey uh, question." Chuck asked of no one in particular.

"Hey uh, answer." Julia took on.

"I'm no expert or anything but aren't hedges usually plants?"

Looking at the very plantlike plants the hedges were made out of she turned back to him. "It certainly appears that way."

"Aren't these hedges pretty big?"

"Yes, so far I think we're on the same page."

"So don't you usually need a gardener to keep them from growing out and losing their shape?"

He had noticed something she hadn't even bothered considering. Most of the large hedges were indeed meticulously trimmed and square edged. Being no gardening guru herself she still knew that even a few months of negligence the plants would naturally begin to lose their shape. Considering that the town had been abandoned for almost twenty years this was something worthy of note.

"I'd be freaked out if it was anywhere else but for here that's almost par for the course." Chuck shrugged.

"It's still a little off even for Silent Hill." Julia shuddered. Looking around she added, "Funny enough though I kind of like this architecture."

"It's a nice place to come and read." Victor said out of the blue.

"You mean it would be if it was somewhere else." Julia corrected.

"No?" he said quizzically. Shaking her head at his confusion Julia said, "Looks like our bird guide is taking a bit of a rest. If it turns out he's leading us a shiny rock or his nest or something I'll be expecting some sort of apology."

"Hey, I didn't say you had to follow me." Chuck shrugged. "It was a long shot anyway."

The bird took off again after cawing loudly twice more. Grudgingly the trio followed it to where it squawked from nearby. Circling around a line of bushes they entered a small clearing with a large statue that was placed just right to be concealed by the tall hedges. It was an almost angelic robed figure with a downcast head and praying hands resting on top of an ornate square base. It was very old and weather beaten enough to have been there since the park opened.

Though it was certainly a grand sight at the moment every inch of horizontal real estate on the statue was covered by a crow. They lined the robed figure and base of the statue like a black, feathered aura. Not one of them moved or made the slightest sound much to the dismay of the humans that stumbled upon them. They simply stared at the intruders with dozens of jet black, unblinking orbs.

"Holy..." Chuck trailed off.

"Is...that a good omen?" Julia whispered, for some reason, to Victor.

"Ah...I'm not exactly sure." he whispered back.

The crows suddenly took off in unison and despite herself Julia shrieked while covering her face. The murder filled the air around them with flapping wings but turned and took off into the sky. Their abrupt departure and the sudden cacophony it made lingered long after in Julia's ears even as the flapping faded in the distance. Soon there was no evidence they were ever there in the first place except for the thudding in Julia's chest.

None of them seemed to want to get any closer to the statue even though the menacing avian presence was gone. Regaining her composure Julia hoped her companions would let that moment of weakness pass without comment. "So uh, one of you big, strong men want to over there and check out that statue?" she asked.

"I don't know, are you going to scream again?" Chuck asked. So much for discretion.

"Something is wrong here." Victor said unexpectedly. "Not just the birds."

"What?"

"I've never seen this statue before."

"So?"

"So? I've been here dozens of times in the past. There's no way I would have missed a statue like this." he explained.

"Maybe you just...didn't come this way before?" Chuck theorized.

"No. I've had this park mapped out for a long time. It simply wasn't here before."

"That doesn't make any sense." Chuck shook his head.

"I know. That's why something's wrong." Victor repeated. He retreated away from the statue and examined the way they had just come in. Looking first up and then down along the ground he walked in a straight line across the gap that allowed them to enter the small clearing.

"I'm sure there was a wall here." Victor proclaimed. "Totally sure."

"I'm sure there's a logical...explanation...you know what, I think it's safe to say there was a wall here and it just straight up disappeared. That makes more sense, actually." Chuck said.

"Well, let's check this thing out." Julia said. "Something about it has to be important if we were led to it."

Surrounding the statue they looked for anything unusual while Victor bent down to try to read the faded inscription.

"Oh hey." Chuck said from behind the statue. "Check this out."

Moving to join him Julia saw a small mound directly behind the statue. It was only remarkable in that no grass grew over the top and it appeared to be a slightly different color than the rest of the ground. "What do you think is there?" he asked.

"I don't know but this seems familiar." Julia said with something flitting in the back of her mind that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"This is a monument to Jennifer Carroll." Victor noted while circling the statue. "One of the Order's founders if memory serves. Supposedly she was burned at the stake."

Kneeling down Julia poked at the slightly uneven bump of dirt. "A statue is more than most people burned alive get." she said. "Vic, take a look at this."

"Hmm." Victor grunted. "You think something is buried here?"

"Maybe."

"Well, have a look." he suggested.

Shrugging Julia dug into the ground with her hands to begin a low tech excavation. Hunkering down next to her Chuck joined in with Victor standing over them but far enough away to not be in their light. Cold rocks and random roots attempted to block their progress through the black earth as they threw piles of soil to the side. It seemed like a foolish thing to do when she thought about it but after six inches or so her fingers touched something flat and metal.

"Got something!" she said excitedly. Quickly clearing away the rich soil they found a small circular piece of metal embedded in the dirt. Gripping it with grimy fingers she tugged at what turned out to be the top of a cylindrical container wrapped in a thin cloth. It took another minute to uncover enough of it to get a grip on and out of the ground Julia pulled free an eight inch tube tightly bound with thoroughly stained fabric.

Unwrapping it like a Christmas present she revealed a silvery metal trapped under the cloth that somehow retained its gleam. A thin line around the top denoted some kind of opening and she gently pulled on it. It resisted at first but the lid soon gave in and opened with the hiss of trapped air.

All three of them tried to see into the container at once. Pushing Victor's head away she saw that there was an old leather pouch and a small envelope tied to it inside. Shaking the contents out into her hand she divvied up the find. Handing Victor the envelope she carefully opened the pouch to find a dark, coarse powder.

"Someone went through the trouble of burying dirt in dirt? That's kind of redundant." she scoffed as he rose to her feet.

"Let me see." Victor said and she handed him the strange find. Reaching a couple fingers into the sack he pinched a bit and rubbed it between his thumb and index finger. "These are ashes." he murmured.

"Is that...significant?"

"I don't know but hold onto it." Victor said as he wiped the dust from the small envelope. It had been sealed with red wax and had a crest impressed into the wax's surface like a letter from centuries ago. The seal was something like waves or grass or leaves but it was hard to tell. Breaking it open Victor discovered a small letter and a key ring with a single key and a faded plastic tag. Unfolding the letter Victor held it up to the others.

"That's the Dark Man's handwriting." Chuck observed even from upside down. It was a flowing, fancy cursive that matched at least in feel the overly formal red seal on the front.

"Apply this sacred ash unto thyself when the winds blow red." Victor read to them.

"The hell kind of message is that?" Julia asked. "And what's it supposed to mean?"

"It means we put this on if we think the Order's magic is around." Victor translated.

"Yeah...well at least someone was able to figure that out." Chuck scratched his head.

Handing Chuck the letter to hold Victor inspected the key chain. "It has an address on it. 521 Rendell street. A few blocks south and west."

"What do you think the key is for?" Julia wondered.

"Looks like an apartment key, can't be sure." Victor said. "Oh, nevermind. Apartment 45."

"Oh. Good."

"Let's be on our way." Victor said while pocketing the items they found. Plucking the letter of out Chuck's hands he said "I'm just hoping that our good luck keeps and we do not encounter any opposition along the way."

"Ah man!" Chuck said in disappointment.

"Vic! Come on!" Julia cried.

"What?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.

"You _never _point out something lucky or good while it's still happening! You totally just jinxed us." she explained as she would to a child.

"That's...kind of a silly superstition isn't it? Aren't you two a little old for things like that?" Victor asked.

"Here, of all places, it kind of pays to superstitious."

"We'll see." he said in that annoying tone that meant he didn't believe it for a second. "Come on. Let's get to the bottom of this."

"Tch. You first, luck killer." Julia glared at him.

Having his bearings Victor moved unerringly back into the misty streets. Julia let out a short breath of annoyance and followed him. At least this time she had a gun.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Ramifications

The mist had seemingly become thicker and Julia swore she saw shapes taking form only to have nothing manifest from the swirling air. Once or twice there was movement – it had to be something and not her imagination! - in the vacant windows and storefronts they passed by. Wanting to mention these things to the others Julia deemed it both a waste of time and a great way to look like a scared little girl. If there was one thing she didn't like it was coming off as weak or needy, especially in front of Victor.

As they progressed towards the apartment southeast of the park there was a faint sound in the distance that grew louder with each step. Cautiously Victor slowed their pace and it was soon evident the sound was a type of motor. It did not have the whine of a small stroke type but the rumble of a full sized vehicle and a large one at that. Julia immediately thought of that one movie with the killer car that come to life but quickly banished the idea. This was real life wasn't it?

Taking a position on the rough brick edge of a building Victor halted their procession to look around for the source of the auditory disturbance. It couldn't have been more than two blocks away at this point but the mist was so thick that it still could not be seen. "Sounds like an old muscle car." Chuck said. Victor turned and furrowed his brow at the Canadian.

"What? My dad's a huge car buff. Oh..." he trailed off.

"What is it?" Victor asked worriedly, turning his attention back to the path ahead.

"Nothing it's just...I haven't seen my folks in years. I should go visit them if we get out of here. I'm sorry, I'm sure you guys talk to your parents all the time." Chuck rambled. Julia moved into Chuck's line of sight and made a throat cutting motion as quickly as she could. Chuck's eyes widen slightly and Victor remained quiet. One of the defining moments of his life had been his mother's death; Chuck was bringing up the worst subject he possibly could.

"I think it's coming from this way." Victor said without turning around and moved off without them. Hanging back Julia crossed her arms and frowned at Chuck.

"You forgot already didn't you?" she asked and was quite cross.

"Damn. Shit. I'm sorry I said anything." Chuck said miserably. "I didn't offend you too did I?"

"I'm okay. I never knew my parents. Had great foster parents and a stable life. I'm at peace with it but Victor...well it's best just to not bring it up again okay? C'mon, we can't let him get too far ahead."

They started walking after the knight and Chuck took a deep breath. "I always do this." he lamented. "I always say the wrong thing to people I try to get to like me. I bet he hates my guts now."

"Just try not to be so chatty. And don't ever mention mayo around him. Drives him crazy?"

"Mayo like mayonnaise?"

"Yeah. I wouldn't mention it."

Chuck managed a feeble laugh but Julia wasn't making a joke. Ahead of them Victor was waiting by the corner of the next block. The engine sound was loud now and very close. "It's an old car alright." he whispered loudly as necessary to hear as they came up.

"Anyone in it?" Julia asked. Victor merely shrugged and nodded in that direction. Edging herself around the building she saw a red muscle car without wheels parked along the sidewalk some thirty feet away. Silently grateful for the absence of the killer car option she studied the soot covered windows for signs of life. The car seemed to just be humming to itself with no other indication it was being operated.

Backing off she asked, "Check it out?"

"Might be a trap?" Victor speculated.

"Yeah but...if it's still on that means there's gas in the tank right? That might come in handy." Julia thought.

"How?"

"I don't know, powering stuff, molotov cocktails."

"Molotov cocktails." Victor said flatly. "Really?"

"I'll go." Chuck volunteered. "Just cover me."

"Cover you? Cover you with what?"

"Just cover me dammit!" he repeated and crept around the corner. Julia threw her hands up and Victor gave the slightest of smirks. Regardless of her annoyance the at the both of them she followed Chuck at a reasonable distance and did so very quietly. Slipping her pistol into her hand she kept it pointed low at the ground as she heard Victor slip his blade out from its sheathe.

Dropping down on his hands Chuck checked under the car before getting too close to it. Creeping towards the front passenger door he looked over his shoulder to make sure his back up wasn't too far away. With a nod from Julia he crouched low and taking it step by step Chuck fairly crawled up to the glossy metal handle. Pausing when he was an arm's length away he slowly reached out to open the door.

The engine suddenly sputtered and died as he was only inches away from making contact. Jumping back abruptly Chuck skidded back on his hands and rear end frantically. Julia tensed up in her whole upper body and trained her gun on the door to shoot anything that came out but nothing did. Getting his feet back under him Chuck watched the car for a few moments before shaking out his jitters. Glancing at the other humans again to reassure himself he worked his way back up to the now placid car. Seizing the handle he flung open the door and rolled out of the way.

Thick clouds of noxious smoke came pouring out of the cabin. Even from where she was standing she could smell the nauseating odor of carbon monoxide dispersing into the air. Scrambling to his feet Chuck made a confused face when the smoke cleared out. Without taking his eyes off what was inside he waved them to come closer. There didn't seem to be any imminent danger so she joined him and ducked down to see inside.

Sitting in the driver's seat and belted in tight was an unclothed male mannequin. Its head had been tilted back as if it was sleeping in the seat. The hands had been sprawled out on its lap and a solitary key was in the steering column.

"Goddamn mannequins." she cursed. This was a minor occurrence by all accounts; they'd all no doubt been through worse. The part that truly troubled her was that it was beginning already. The mannequin was just the overture, the tip of the iceberg. Gone was her optimism that perhaps things had changed here. As always the town had just made sure they were deep enough inside that getting out would be no easy task.

"So much for gas. Tank'll be bone dry." Chuck concluded.

Victor came over to peer into the cabin and did his trademark reaction of not reacting at all. "It should only be a few more blocks this way. Let's try to avoid any more incidents until we get to our destination." he suggested with the concern of a government official. Thoroughly spooked Julia nevertheless holstered her gun and they fell back in line behind Victor as they continued down the sidewalk. Mere seconds had passed until Julia was unnerved to hear a car door open and frantic steps broke the silence as they beat down the street in the opposite direction. She froze and Victor did the same in front of her.

She'd assumed Chuck was walking behind her the whole time but it seemed he'd lingered by the car. To her complete surprise he _was_ right behind her with his mouth hanging open in shock. A chill ran down her spine as all three of them turned back to the car which was still mostly visible through the mist. The front driver side door was open despite it being shut just moments ago.

"Okay, I'm trying not to freak out here." Chuck whispered. "But I'm pretty sure I didn't open both of those doors."

"We should keep moving." Victor urged.

Julia's heart was beating fast but she couldn't just keep walking. If there wasn't a plastic, unmoving person in the driver's seat that definitely did not get up out of its position by itself then she would have trouble turning her back to the car. She really wanted to believe that it was still sitting there like it should be.

"One of you go check it out." she whispered.

"Are you nucking futs?" Chuck hissed. "I already did it once and I don't even have a weapon!"

"I have to find out...Vic will you go look?"

"Can we go afterward?" he pleaded.

"Yes!"

Breaking away from where they huddled like mice Victor calmly strode to the open door, ducked his head down and scanned the interior before coming back.

"Well?" she asked, not entirely wanting to hear the answer but needing to.

"Car's empty, mannequin's gone. Let's get going." he replied casually.

"Oh frig..."

"Sweet Zeus..."

"What wrong with you two? We weren't attacked. That's a good thing."

"Maybe you don't mind but I'm pretty freaking freaked out. I had nightmares about dolls coming to life when I was little." Julia shuddered.

"Can we just go before it comes back?" Chuck implored insistently.

Hurrying along behind Victor she was also in no mood to stay in the area. Diving back into the mist fearlessly Victor led them around the vacant streets once more. It was so hushed it felt like a dream though it was quickly becoming an unpleasant one. If only the area would stay quiet and peaceful like it was Silent Hill wouldn't be so bad.

They stopped in front of a building that was certainly one of the older structures in the area. Built at least thirty years ago the white paint on it had been fading and peeling for at least a third of that. The lack of human activity in the town even when inhabited had merely accelerated its rapid decline. A low brick wall attempted to encircle the overgrown front lawn but it too had long since seen better days.

"Here we are." Victor announced. He brought them up a stone walk way to the front door which was curiously locked. That didn't seem to be much of a problem for Victor as he got a running start and jumped bodily into the aged wood. It cracked loudly but held until he convinced it otherwise with a few heavy kicks to the locking mechanism. With the last kick the door swung in violently along with bits of wood and dust.

"Couldn't we have just broken a window or something?" Chuck proposed. "That seemed unnecessary."

Victor shrugged and trampled over what was left of the door to get in. Cautiously following Julia noticed that there would be little help from the outside in terms of visibility. A large staircase invited them upward into the darkness while Victor scanned the bottom floor with what little light they had.

"Numbers start at one and two, we'd better head up." he said and she wasn't happy about it. There was too much shadow here, too many places for things to hide. Unenthusiastically she went with him to the second floor and was barely able to see the steps as they moved. The landing on the next floor held no surprises but it did have some murky light coming from above. The stairs were stacked on each other so the next floors' flight was directly above them and blocked a majority of the light coming in. It still filtered down the empty space in the center and gave them a little bit of visual clarity.. Dusty rails guided them to the source of the light at the top floor which turned out to be a pair of giant windows that ran to the ceiling. Once upon a time this might have been a cute little place to live.

There were more darkened halls and rooms on each floor but Victor passed them by. Circling around to the last flight he led them up to a T intersection. Both right and left ended in darkened corners but light seemed to be coming from farther down. He went left and they were briefly surrounded by gloom until fully coming into the hallway. At the end was another window that somewhat lit up the long stretch of carpet. The apartment doors were directly across from each other in pairs all the way to that window at the end of the building.

"I hate it when they do that." Chuck blurted out.

"Do what?"

"That thing with the doors. Makes the whole place look like a hive or something."

"I don't know, I like it like this." she said. "Easier to find your way around."

They started walking down the hall and luckily they'd started at the right spot just at apartment 39. "Should be just down here." Victor deduced.

"Finally." she said somewhat relieved. "Glad we're almost there."

"Glad we never ran into anything the whole way here." Victor agreed.

"Vic!"

"What? Nothing happened did it? It's just a silly superstition. I think I'd know Jewel."

The white battering ram exploded through the door and hit Victor in the shoulder he'd used to break into the building. It kept going even after lifting him off the ground and smashed him through the adjacent door in a violent collision. Having been no more than two steps behind him Julia's brain struggled to form words as she stared at the thick, slimy, white cylinder of flesh in front of her. Almost two feet in diameter the it had to be much longer than the five feet in between each door it currently had punched two holes through. The slimy mass sat there a moment as if studying her before pulling back into the ruined door it had so destructively appeared from.

Standing there Julia contemplated what would be her best move at that particular junction as her legs didn't seem to want to go anywhere. A hand gripped her shoulder and someone yanked her nearly off her feet just before a second crater opened in the wall where she had been standing. That same white column blasted through the solid wood like it was paper and slammed into the other side. Without that timely pull there was a good chance she would have been on the wrong end of that mighty blow.

"Run!" Chuck yelled at her as he made a hasty retreat.

"Victor!" she shouted back but in her mind it was supposed to have been, 'Wait, we have to make sure Victor is okay before proceeding.'

"He'll be okay if it follows us!" Chuck explained and wasted no more breath. Whatever was on the other side of the wall slammed into it again and easily charged through weakened hallway. Skidding forward by its own frightening momentum the beast only stopped when it crashed into the other side of wall. Leaving a statue sized hole behind it the creature was a hulking, smooth thing that barely managed to be contained by the ceiling. Its arms were the battering rams she'd recently become acquainted with that ran from an eight foot shoulder all the way to the floor. They started out like normal arms but thickened dramatically at the ends until they were more like bulbous, fleshy clubs. It gaped at her with freakish lips on the end of a trunk like neck missing the head. It seemed like it was wearing a mottled skirt but she did not stick around to get a good look. Julia turned to run and the creature bellowed a deep, unearthly scream that rattled the door frames around her.

Fully engaged in flight mode she felt the miniiture earthquakes in the old floor from the creature staggering after her. Coming back to the staircase she got a glimpse of Chuck before he bounded down the steps to the second floor. "Guuaaaah!" he shrieked from below her in a mixture of fear and surprise. Moving down the steps as fast as she safely could she barely comprehended that they were shaking as well. Stopping a few precious moments to listen Julia blocked out the noise from the top floor. There was definitely an entirely separate cacophony coming from the lower floors. Julia realized with shock that there was another one of the behemoths coming up as the first one forced them down.

Hurling herself down the stairs she nearly skidded into Chuck fighting with a human sized but still blank featured monster. One of its hands ended in a rusted blade and he was desperately trying to get control of it. The sight was like some kind of bizarre grafting procedure gone horridly wrong. It was as if someone had simply jammed the large piece of metal into the unwilling skin.

Adding her weight to his Julia helped throw the creature to the dusty carpet. Pinning down the creature's bicep, the only part of its left arm that wasn't metal, she gave Chuck the chance to do same. Pulling out her automatic Julia stuck the barrel in the creature's non-face and blew off the top of its skull. Warm blood sprayed her face and the creature merely jerked its limbs faintly in death.

Breathing hard she stood up when the monster was clearly dead. Upright and staring at the body Chuck seemed to be oblivious to this and lost in another world. Around them the behemoths were still closing in and they didn't have much time until they had to deal with both of them at once. Julia holstered her gun but knew that she would desperately need it in the next few minutes.

"I thought I'd be ready." he said absently. "I'm not. I've been away too long. Too many meds, too soft, too many hours lost watching MacGyver reruns."

Unfortunately Julia knew that tone all too well. It was borderline, barely contained hysteria and she'd become very familiar with it since first coming here. It was a mental problem that needed to be checked and fast. Not sure exactly what to do she did what people do in the movies. Cocking her arm back she leaned forward and slapped the taste out of his mouth with a hard palm to the cheek.

Turning his head in complete surprise he stared at her with wide eyes and an open jaw. Getting in his face and looking him in the eye she said, "Pull yourself the fuck together! You can have a breakdown later! Right now we gotta move. There's still two of them and I need your help. Victor needs our help. Get it?"

Rubbing the quickly forming red hand print on his face Chuck said, "You're right. We've gone through too much to fail now."

"That's the spirit." she said and something then caught her ear that wasn't a behemoth and certainly wasn't a person. It was a bubbling, gurgling sound and was soon accompanied by a tar smell that overpowered the coppery blood stench around them. It seemed to be coming from two different places at once which meant to her multiple assailants.

"Is that..." Chuck breathed.

"Yeah. Stay here and warn me if one of those things gets too close. I'll take care of this, okay?"

"Okay..."

"Good. Can you handle this? You ready?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'm ready." he said, trying to bolster his courage.

Hurrying away from the landing where the hall turned left towards the rows of apartments she prayed that the floor layout was the same as above and luckily it was. The monster lurching towards her was casting a shadow on the wall she could easily see without turning the corner to face it. Behind her the sound of flesh and ligaments being ripped apart reached her ears and she had to take a quick glance back. Chuck was standing over the monster they had already killed but she couldn't see what he was doing and didn't have the luxury of finding out.

Sliding up to the corner she peeked around it ever so slowly. It was exactly as she had thought it was going to be. Coming towards her on unsteady feet was a faceless wretch with its arms fused into its body. In the center of its chest churned an acidic black substance that smelled strongly of burning tires. Like most of its kind it was slow and dim witted but capable of grievous harm. All it took was connecting with a stream of that fluid and she would have a vicious burns all over her body. In order to avoid that she'd have to draw an attack that wouldn't end with her covered in pitch.

Attempting to get its attention she whipped her arm out in front of its path in a fast half circle. It staggered closer and let out a muffled moan but did not attack. Trying again produced no result but she could hear it mere feet away. Forcing herself to slow down the motion she slowly repeated the half circle and was almost caught by an explosive burst of the black tar. It hit the wall barely five feet from her and promptly began to eat away at it.

Tearing around the corner she saw the foul smelling thing leaning back as if preparing another volley. There was plenty of open space on either side of it and she dove for safety. It fired again but too late to harm her and she scampered behind it while the acrid smell of burning wood and rubber filled the air. Putting her arm around its neck she kicked out its left leg and planted her knee behind it. This rendered it her hostage and under her control as she pulled out her pistol.

Halting as she held the gun to its temple the wall burning ahead of her suddenly inspired something that he hadn't thought of before. Putting the pistol away she dragged the monster along as it made gurgling sounds and struggled but with only one leg it could do little more than that. Julia brought it back the way they had come as fast as she force it to hobble and rounded to corner to see her companion in a jam. At the bottom of the stairs Chuck was trying to fend off the second battering ram that was doing its best to climb steps clearly not designed for it. Waving some kind of sword the escaped mental patient didn't seem to be doing much good and she shrugged off the question as to where he had gotten a weapon in such a short amount of time.

"Out of the way!" she yelled and Chuck looked back to see her and her new friend. Astounded by what he saw Chuck nevertheless hurried back up the stairs away from the raging behemoth . It wasn't making good progress and was simply smashing its huge arms into the steps instead of using them as intended to climb towards them. Bringing her churning buddy to bear Julia pointed it as best she could at its oncoming kin. The struggling climber managed to gain another few feet when Julia decided that waiting for something to happen probably wasn't the best idea.

Getting one leg solidly down she used the other to knee her captive hard in the spine. Nothing happened so she did it again for good measure and this time it discharged a frothing burst from its chest downward at the stairs. The noxious tar splattered on the battering ram's white skin like burning paint on a white canvas. It roared frightfully as the substance burned into it but Julia did not let up and ruthlessly drove her knee the back of her new tar cannon. Her unwilling weapon twisted and its next shot went unexpectedly upward and instead decorated the ceiling above her intended target.

Cursing at the waste of a shot Julia involuntarily ducked at the thundering tremor that came from almost directly above her. It took her a moment to realize the first battering ram was trying to descend the stairs with as much grace as the second one. Pointing her creature's torso upward she asked it in no uncertain terms to continue spraying that spot by way of repeated knees to the spine. The spitter reluctantly agreed and applied another coat to the already corroding wood above.

A crashing step from above proved to be almost too much for the old staircase and it creaked loudly with the weight of the heavy creature. The lower battering ram almost comically turned its still burning mouth trunk upward at the sound before its fellow behemoth took another step and burst through the ceiling in an avalanche of splintered wood. The mass landed on top of the second monster and together they rent a destructive path to the bottom of the stairwell. Plowing through the feeble stairs like a great, slimy cannonball the behemoths produced a deafening reverberation when they came to a stop at the bottom of the ruined stairwell. Bits of lumber continued to fall even after the dust began to settle from all around them.

Finally releasing her prisoner Julia gave it a hearty kick into the new ventilation system she'd just installed. It made no sound as it fell over the side and landed badly below. Joining her at the top the stairs Chuck surveyed the damage. Leaning as far as he dared he said, "One of the big ones is still moving."

Pulling out her pistol Chuck held up his hand. "I got this one." he said as he showed her a bloody, rusty blade that looked very familiar. He headed away to look for a different way down but turned back for a moment. "That was...pretty awesome." he gushed.

"Was it?" Julia asked. At the moment she was genuinely unable to admire her own handiwork. There was no glory or joy in this for her. It was just survival.

Hefting the rusty blade Chuck excused himself and disappeared down the hallway. She felt like she had earned a break when she realized that Victor was still upstairs somewhere and possibly in danger. Nearly tripping over the body of the first monster they'd dispatched she saw where the sword like object had come from. Chuck had simply ripped it out of the arm it had been attached to. Mentally filing this macabre incident for later disgust she took care to step over both the armless monster went the direction Chuck had gone. Jogging after him she found a smaller stairwell at the rear of the building. Speeding her way up to the third floor she came out on the right hallway and zipped past the apartments to get back to the landing they had originally came up.

Making a right into the hallway where number 45 was she stopped short when she saw a figure back lit by the window at the end. Putting a hand on her gun she realized that it was Victor stumbling towards her. "Vic!"

He was dazed and regarded her almost in confusion. Rushing to his side she helped him sit back down on the floor and lean against the wall. "Are you okay sweetness?" she asked worriedly.

Blinking a couple of times as if this was a strange question Victor groggily asked, "What just happened?"

Concerned she pushed his head down and felt for bruising or blood. "Are you dizzy?" she asked.

"No." he answered calmly. "Your boobs are in my face."

"Alright, well, suffer through that for me for a bit." she said without stopping. Satisfied that he had not taken permanent damage she leaned back and said, "Doesn't seem like you have any head trauma. I think you just got knocked the hell out."

"And...how did that happen?"

"A really big monster with a couch for an arm punched you through the door."

"Oh. That actually makes a lot of sense." Victor said. His brow furrowed for a moment and he added, "Wait did I miss something else? How did one of those ridiculously loud things sneak up on me?"

Julia opened her mouth to answer but no reason came to mind. Now that she thought on it there was no warning or sound at all. It wasn't like the monsters of Silent Hill to plan such a devastating sneak attack. "You know...I haven't the foggiest. We were just walking and then boom! it came out the wall to ruin your day."

"That's...very strange isn't it?"

"Yeah, actually it kind of is."

"Are you okay?"

"My arm feels like one giant bruise but I'll be fine. Where's Chuck?"

On cue they heard steps coming towards them and Julia only relaxed when the Canadian came around the corner. "Looks safe. They're all taken care of." he reported. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he'll be fine."

"Eh guy, you got knocked the fuck out." Chuck said.

"Nice to see you too." Victor said dryly. "What happened to your face?"

Chuck glared at Julia and said, "I don't know. What _did _happen to my face?'

"He was in need of some borrowed courage and I only had some in my hand." Julia shrugged. "You're welcome, by the way."

"If we're here chatting incessantly I take it we're in the clear?" Victor asked.

"Should be."

"Then help me up."

Taking one arm the other two lifted Victor back to his feet. Leaning heavily on Julia he eyed the blade in Chuck's hand and wondered, "Where'd you get that weapon?"

"One of the monsters had it attached to its arm." Julia explained.

"I disarmed him." Chuck said with a straight face.

"Oh. Ha. Very funny."

"A pun."

Chuck looked perplexed. "Wait what? I don't get it."

This actually made Julia laugh for real and she waved him off. "Never mind. What do we do now?"

"What we came here to do. Check out the apartment."

Limping down the hallway just three apartments from where they were Victor stopped to fumble for the key. Fitting it into the lock he turned it one way and the other before turning back to them. "It isn't locked." he announced anticlimactically.

"What? What was the key for then?"

"Um...maybe the front door you bashed in?" Chuck offered.

"Well at any rate we had better head in." Victor said and deftly managed to change the subject. "You're the one with the blade Chuck Taylor. Go on."

Pushing open the door with one hand Chuck brought up the still slick weapon. It gave off that metallic blood smell but it was coupled with something else unique to the monsters of Silent Hill. There was the faintest hint of something oily or greasy that was certainly there and certainly repulsive.

Past the door was a surprisingly well decorated home with no signs of abnormality. His handling of the weapon was amateur at best but Chuck moved through the apartment with killer intensity. The main living room ahead split off into a small kitchen and two more rooms at either side of the typical couch, table and television set up. Waiting in the middle of the living room Julia watched him open the farthest door which had been hiding a simple bedroom. Its set up was also entirely ordinary with a nightstand and cabinet. The entire place was so plain it could have been used to film a sitcom.

"Nothing here?" she guessed. Victor said nothing but dislodged himself from her shoulder to investigate the second door.

"I think we'd hear something if there were any monsters around." Chuck said while leaning his makeshift sword against the wall.

"No one heard anything when that thing put Victor through a door." she pointed out.

"Hmmm. Right." Chuck agreed.

The door opened to her right and Victor said, "Ah. Here."

Even with his considerable bulk in the way Julia could see as she approached that there was a mountain of boxes in the next room. Filing into the small room she moved out from behind him and saw the full extent of the giant stockpile before her. Divided into sections the first pile was made up of all kinds of camping gear and military MREs stacked almost to the ceiling. Rope, cooking supplies, thermal blankets and even a rolled up tent were stacked neatly together. Next came boxes upon boxes of 9mm, 10mm, .45 and .50 caliber bullets, buckshot and rifle slugs like something out of a gun junkie's dreams. There was even a sling of grenades with harmless the innocuous green orbs fit snugly in the rungs like a Vietnam war flick. Lastly was a row of six handguns on a rack and many more fully loaded clips meticulously arranged. Three shotguns and hunting rifles were at the end of the rack that barely fit with everything else.

Dominating the entire display however was a set of armor, sword and shield. Made out of a greenish tinted metal that didn't seem to reflect any light the shield was leaning against the boxes of ammo and wide enough for almost two people. Ancient styled metal greaves sat next to a helmet that had a flashlight built into the top. It was an eerie replication of the helmet Julia had first seen Victor in and she surmised that this was no coincidence. Sitting next to the sword was a collection of low tech weapons including a pickaxe, shovel and metal fighting gloves that appeared to be made out of silver or something close to it. Rounding out the collection was a green hilted sword wrapped in a haphazardly fashioned black leather scabbard and propped up next to the shield with a note attached.

They sat in stunned silence for a few moments until Chuck cleared his throat from behind them. "Dibs on the shotguns."

"That...is a lot of bullets." was all Julia could think to say.

"You two can have the firearms." Victor said.

"Oooooh! Dis-armed! I get it now." Chuck laughed to himself.

Julia put her palm to her face. She hated puns.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Rites of Passage

The two men entered the small sanctuary with no resistance from the posted guards. They'd already long since been cleared to come and go as they pleased. Right now they were only focused on getting into the commander's temporary office. Despite his men's objections there were no permanent guards in front of or near his room. Hulme preferred an open door and a loaded assault rifle to keep himself safe.

Swiftly the two men swept into the cluttered office. Reports, statistics and supply charts littered the desk Hulme reclined behind. Even without his combat armor he emanated an air of authority that few among the mercenary group would dare question. With his darkling, hard lined face and permanent frown the commander always seemed to be in a foul mood even when he wasn't. It was not an image he tried hard to change.

The second in command, Lt. Colonel Matthew Westfall was a smaller, much less imposing figure but nevertheless a capable officer in his own right. The conversation between the two ended when the men presented themselves before the commander. "At ease." Hulme gestured. "Gentlemen, what is the situation?"

Neither man wanted to speak but the one on the right cleared his throat. "Um, not good is the only way I can describe it, sir. Every attempt to contact the outside has failed."

"We climbed an old antenna station." the second spoke up. "Hoping maybe we could get a better signal. We picked up nuttin' but static on all frequencies."

"Phone lines are all dead." the first took over again. "And...we have confirmed the earthquake phenomenon is present at all exits of the town."

"Show him the compass."

The first mercenary opened his large, survival style compass and set it on the desk. The needle was spinning around counterclockwise like a toy top. Hulme peered at it before leaning back in his chair, troubled. "The only other land route not blocked off was through the thick forest on the westernmost edge of town in the residential area. It is possible there is traversable land beyond it but...we did not scout far into it."

"Why not soldier?" Westfall demanded to know. "That might be our way out of here."

The two men exchanged a look. "We...were scared sir. We'd need back up and rope to go in."

"Rope?"

"We were only ten feet in and became lost. It took us 20 minutes to backtrack out. And there were...noises...coming from farther in that we didn't think we were prepared to handle."

"Go get some rest gentlemen." Hulme said. "Then get back to your regular posts. Not a word of this to anyone else."

"Sir!" the two saluted before exiting the room.

Westfall turned back to Hulme and rubbed his forehead. "What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?"

"A fair bit of trouble it seems." the commander admitted. "But we're not totally screwed just yet. Give me the facts again."

Picking up a well worn clipboard Westfall read out the report that never changed for the better. "Food supply on track, thank God, ammunition and medical supplies considerably depleted. Another month's worth, tops. One dead, four injured with one critical."

"How's he doing?"

"He's alive. Took a stinger or something through the chest. We have medics on him 24 hours a day but who knows with those goddamn things out there. Situations like this where we don't even know what we're fighting are eating through our stock. To say we weren't prepared for the conditions here would be a significant understatement."

"There are a great many things we did not expect, yes."

"What did they say about getting us out?"

"They were clear on no one leaving until our contract is up. I wonder though."

"About?"

"If he's lying." Hulme ruminated. "If there really is no way out and we're stuck here forever."

"There has to be a way out." Westfall said firmly.

"You sound very sure for a man with no evidence, Matthew."

"They cultivate that crap here. The flower. It would be no use to them otherwise. Have to be getting it out somehow. Besides, there's no way you can live on the food still in town. You'd have to resupply at some point. These creeps have been here for years at least, if not decades."

"Hmm. But how? Everything's blocked, everything's dead. If our radios don't work then a whirly bird sure as hell wouldn't fly either."

"Yes but we drove in here like normal. All that didn't happen until later." Westfall pointed out.

"Right...they have to have a switch or something. A drawbridge back to the real world."

"You might be onto something Commander."

"Keep eyes open then in case we need a contingency. Was there anything else?" Hulme asked.

"Ah...one more thing. I've had scattered reports of the...clergy I guess we can call them...talking to some of the men about permanent employment with their organization."

"With them? Here? Ridiculous." Hulme scoffed. "I'm having a hard enough time as it is convincing the men they'll be going home at some point."

"I'd pay attention, sir." Westfall warned. "They're offering a substantial pay increase even over our own high premium."

This genuinely angered the normally unflappable commander. It was one thing to keep them stuck in this hellish nightmare of a town until their contract was up; it was quite another to try poaching his men to boot. He regret for the thousandth time and at least the fifteenth time that day that he ever agreed to this assignment. "I'll have to talk with that son a bitch. He needs to learn that there will be consequences if we don't get what we were promised in every way."

"What do you think he'll say?" Westfall asked worriedly.

"Doesn't matter. I didn't get to where I am by being pushed around and harried into an early grave. If our employer needs to learn that the hard way then so be it."

* * *

For them it was like a particularly happy Christmas morning and each one felt like a 9 year old looking over the biggest stack of presents they''d ever see. It was not quite euphoria, not quite actual happiness but something akin to it that only Silent Hill could produce. It was a tempered excitement that even though one was stuck in a bad place they had at least found a small comfort. Chuck helped himself to a single barrel hunting shotgun which had enough buckshot around it to start a land war in Asia. He didn't know what use they would have for a grenade belt but he added it to the growing pile at his feet.

"What are you two doing?" Victor asked.

"Huh?"

Chuck looked over to see Julia doing much of the same thing with a couple top of the line pistols and piles of ammo. "Uh...dibs?" she said.

"There's no need to section off your choices. We're the only ones here." the spoil sport sniffed.

He started peering at the suit of armor and Chuck mouthed to Julia "Mine!" as he held up the grenades. Julia gave him the thumbs up and nodded approvingly.

"Does anyone else find it a tad off that all of this is covered in dust?" Victor asked.

"Hmm...now that you mention it yeah. Seems like this stuff has been sitting here for quite some time." the only woman said.

"What are you trying to say?" Chuck asked.

"He had to have set this up years ago." Victor explained. "Almost like he knew we would one day come here. Not just anyone but the three of us."

"Maybe he did." Chuck shrugged. "I wouldn't say it's impossible with the Dark Man."

"He's a demon, not a fortune teller." Victor asserted. "Chuck raised his hands up with palms out to indicate he wasn't going to argue. The knight from years ago turned out to be a bit of a cranky old man it seemed.

Taking the note off of the armor Victor opened the letter and read it aloud. "Now we are come to the end. Begin anew with the promise of steel and white heaven. Alone the wandering warrior knows the misty land. This angel sleeps bound in a promise only green leaves can break."

"Any idea what that's supposed to mean?" Julia asked.

"Ah...sort of." Victor scratched his head. "Now we are...something about starting over here? White heaven must be White Claudia. This part makes sense, he's talking about me knowing my way around."

"How do you know?"

"Silent Hill is the 'misty land'. The Order refers to it like that. And I'll assume I'm the wandering warrior...not completely sure what this last part means. He's talking about himself, I think, when he mentions the angel but I have no idea what if the leaves part is literal or not."

"Doesn't he keep referring to us as leaves?" Julia asked.

"Now that you mention it I think so." Chuck recalled.

"Well, at any rate we need to track him down so we can be done with this." Victor said irritably. Setting the note down he picked up the black scabbard while Chuck and Julia watched. Pulling the blade just a quarter of the way out everyone could see it was silvery and gleaming even in the scarce light. It made the other weapons they had used look like cheap imitations up to that point.

"This...is a masterpiece." Victor whispered to no one in particular.

"What kind of material is this I wonder?" Julia asked as she lifted up the massive circular shield. It was big enough to cover her from neck to almost her kneecaps. "Hey, this thing is pretty light. What kind of metal is it?"

Chuck took a good look at the suit but it was a dark green, almost black color that he couldn't identify. Victor shrugged but started putting the different pieces of the suit on anyway. There were a number of kevlar-ish chest plates that looked sturdy so the Canadian started strapping one on.

"This equipment fits." Victor remarked as he clamped the first bracer over his left forearm. "Well, too."

"You guys don't seem to mind too much where this stuff came from." Julia remarked as Victor pulled on the mideaval looking helmet. It covered his entire forehead and had large eye openings with a spade shaped center piece that ran down the length of his nose.

"Fits quite well." Victor said again and clicking on a small flashlight built into the front of the helmet. He swung it around to point it at Julia's not pleased face. "This will be useful. Why worry about it?"

"Well if your friend left it here for us and had us come in the first place, don't you think he might be behind some of what's happened to us?" she reasoned.

"I would be more surprised if he was genuinely innocent." Victor shrugged.

Eying the two of them Julia nevertheless picked out a pair of glossy metal knuckles from next to a heavy mace and crossbow. Sliding her fingers into one of the gloves she flexed threw a practice cross. "Huh. They do fit."

Rounding up what they could easily carry Chuck was quite happy with his gear. A small satchel of buckshot crisscrossed a 9mm strap that fit snugly by his left arm. Loading and dropping a few clips into the satchel Chuck felt properly geared for Silent Hill for the first time. He sat on a crate of napalm gel while the other two finished their preparations. Julia packed a messenger bag of 9mm clips and gave herself one on each leg. She had put on a vest like he did and wrapped a bandana on to keep her hair out of her eyes. With the fingerless fighting gloves covering the backs of her knuckles she actually looked pretty bad ass.

Once he was done putting the suit on though Victor took the prize for intimidation. He looked like something out of a history book encased in all that metal with a helmet that wrapped under his chin with a thick black buckle. The body piece covered his torso and upper arms while bracers protected his forearms. A pair of greaves and the giant shield rounded out the full body protection and gave him the appearance of a warrior straight out of Homer's tales.

"That looks heavy." Chuck commented.

"Quite light." Victor said. "I feel very safe though. Doesn't make too much noise either. Hard to believe it wasn't made just for me."

"Well it probably was." Julia said with a touch of annoyance in her voice. "Don't suppose your party pal could have gotten three of them for us."

"Perhaps he knew you would be more comfortable with your loud guns." Victor commented dryly. "If we're all ready then let's get going."

"To where?" Chuck asked.

"Whatever is going on I'll bet the Order has something to do with it. They were the ones who raided my apartment for sure. If anyone could find a way to stop Nothing it would be them."

"So we're going to ask them nicely to tell us where he is?" Julia wondered.

"No. We're going to find them and beat it out of them." Victor said matter-of-factly. "The longer we stay here the tighter grip Silent Hill has on us."

"Agreed. So we visit their base first?" Julia suggested.

"No." Victor shook his head. "If it's still the same as it was years ago their main base will be well protected and well runed. I can't fight back without my sheets. We'll have to check out some lower security areas first."

"Can't you just make more sheets?"

"No. It's already almost the end of winter. They have to be made in the fall." he explained.

"Fall? Why?" Chuck asked.

The knight shrugged. "That's just the way it works. You prep the wood in summer, make the paper in early autumn and consecrate the sheets the sometime September or October."

"Who figured out how to do that?" Julia said.

Victor turned his hands upward. "I don't honestly know. The Order claims to have discovered how to make them when the town was founded by witch hunters but I think they''re older. Maybe the Native Americans originally made them but the who has been lost to time. The important part is that they work."

"Hm. Interesting." Chuck said.

"There's a couple of spots I'd like to check before committing to their base." Victor said. "I'd rather not head there if we don't have to. We should be able to pick up some clues about their activities in the surrounding area. The Order so loves their traditions."

"And there's no chance these places are crawling with monsters, right?" Julia chimed in.

"Where would the fun be in that?"

Chuck had seen enough 'fun' to last him a lifetime. He sincerely hoped there wouldn't be any.

* * *

They stealthily approached the rear of the church through the thick mist. Even with all the armor he was wearing Victor made no more noise than the others. Leading them up to the once gleaming white building the Silent Hill native was not pleased to be in the front of the pack again. He would have been much more comfortable with his shield and sword filling distance in between him and Charles Taylor. As far as Victor was concerned he was a self admitted liability and possibly a dangerous, treacherous tool of Nothing's. That he was given a shotgun only intensified Victor's paranoia and resolve to keep an eye on the Canadian.

Flattening himself again the building Victor waited a moment in the cold air. There were no sounds coming from inside or around the church and his senses could not pick up anything. While he was worried that it would be dangerous roving the town without his telepathic radar he had to remind himself that he had survived for years without it. Listening a few more moments he waited for the tell tale creak of a hiding occupant or the shift of weight from a crouched assailant. Satisfied that there was no immediate danger he motioned the other two over.

Pointing at himself Victor then gestured to the right. Stabbing his index and middle fingers at the two of them he gestured left and they nodded in understanding. Waving Chuck to come with her Julia crouched low to avoid the building's windows and went left. Looking around he did so and they both slipped quietly around the corner. Keeping his shield back and putting a hand on the pommel of his sword Victor peered around the edge of the building before going past it.

Sliding up alongside the wall so close he almost grazed it the knight kept his steps even and ears open. The oppressive lack of noise was the only thing that greeted him as he came up to a large stained glass window. Gradually moving his head in line to look inside he saw only a darkened chapel with no one around. Relaxing ever so slightly he crept to the front side of the building where his companions waited.

"No one here." Julia said under her breath,

"Stay alert just in case. I have to look inside."

The worn doors to the church creaked loudly as they let themselves in. The old building smelled of dust and decaying wood with just a hint of mold. The light coming in from the windows seemed almost unwilling to fully illuminate the shadowy rows of pews. The pulpit was the only other piece of furniture in the room and it was wholly unremarkable.

"As cheerful as a graveyard in here." Chuck said. "At least it's empty."

"It is now." Victor's expert eyes picked out the signs even in the low light. "Look at the floor."

Along the aisle there were many footprints in the thin dust. They were varying shapes and sizes but had to have been made in the last week or so judging on the lack of dusk in them. Crouching down Victor studied the patterns and shapes of the prints which lead to a simple conclusion.

"A number of men were here at some point. Boot wearing types." he remarked.

"Is that odd?" Julia asked.

"The Order aren't boot wearing types but that isn't the most important thing here. Look at the prints. Must have been a dozen or more."

"And that's unusual I'm guessing."

"They never send more than a few at a time." Victor explained. "More people are easier to spot. The Order certainly didn't want to be spotted in Silent Hill. I guess they didn't learn their lesson after all this time."

"What do you mean?"

"Your 'friend' Nothing carries a mighty grudge against the Order. He used to be one of them long ago before he became...whatever it is he is now. Every time they set foot in Silent Hill they would be risking an encounter with him. One that would almost certainly end with being beaten to death."

"But they're the bad guys right?"

"If you're trying to imply that Nothing is a 'good guy' you would be sorely mistaken." Victor snapped. It was one thing to tolerate Chuck but quite another to listen to him glorify what had to be one of Silent Hill's most prolific murderers.

They checked around the church for any more clues but there was nothing else that could tell them anything about the most recent visitors. "Well, we know they're around. What next?" Julia asked.

"There's one more place I'd like to check. Our last alternative after that is their base and I'm in no hurry to get there." Victor scratched his chin. "It might even be a death sentence."

"That...doesn't sound promising." Julia balked.

"There's always a way." Victor said. "It's just a matter of how much you're willing to give up to get what you want."

Thinking on the ample defenses the Order would have in place the knight had to think of the consequences of going against them. Alone they might have been at a disadvantage but with the monster on their side there was little that could be done to stop them. All they had to do was find him and point him at the Order and the rest would sort itself out in a bloody mess.

At least that was what he was counting on. He motioned them out of the church and towards the next of the Order's safe houses that dotted the misty land.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Leá Monde Blues

They headed back through the quiet streets with Victor guiding them unerringly. Though well armed they were still quiet and none were in a hurry to use their new weaponry. Doubling back they went towards the direction of the looming forest and deeper into the residential area. Julia didn't like not knowing where they were going but she knew that the man leading them would never be able to forget every street and alley of the ghost town.

"Where are we going now?" Chuck asked.

"An old lumber mill." Victor said irritably. "It's where the Oblivion sheets are prepared. Or it was anyway."

"So there will be guards?"

"Maybe." the knight said quietly. "Maybe it will be abandoned. If it isn't we might be in more for then we can handle."

"Even with all this stuff?" Julia asked.

"Guns might not be enough." Victor said from in front of them.

"I don't like the sound of that." Chuck scoffed and he mirrored Julia's thoughts exactly.

"They have rune magic on their side, Charl- Chuck. We won't be able to properly fight back without some of our own."

"What about that package we found?"

"I don't know how it's going to help, to be honest." Victor admitted. "I do know that if we see a red glyph we're going to stop to apply a little just to be safe."

They continued down the streets and drew closer to a place that Julia never wanted to even see again. They weren't on the right street but even being near it was cause for concern. A weather beaten, off white hospital that was outwardly innocuous but in reality seemed to be a focal point for the town's animosity. She wondered if Victor was even aware that he was taking them close by it but she doubted it. He was always unfazed by the menace that normal people found in the smallest things in Silent Hill.

They were moving through an area of town with storefronts when Julia saw something that made her stop mid-stride. Chuck stopped abruptly as well and scanned the area while Victor froze with his hand hovering over his sword. Pointing at one of the darkened store windows the two men then saw what caused her reaction. Standing in the window of an ice cream store was a very out of place mannequin that had been placed – hopefully long ago – among a bunch of signs and pictures. It was posed in a typically sporty fashion but was devoid of clothes and any other embellishments save one. The mannequin was clutching a long, almost machete sized rusted knife in one hand that almost touched the window.

"Motherfuh..." Chuck started.

"Is that thing following us?" Julia whispered while half expecting it to jump through the glass.

"Don't be silly." Victor said.

"If that's the same thing from the car, I'm not aboot, er, about to find out. Cover me. With your guns." Chuck said and broke away from them.

"Chuck! Come back!" Julia hissed but he waved her off. Leading with his shotgun he gingerly opened the door to the shop and went inside.

"Men." Julia growled to herself and whipped out a pistol to train on the mannequin. She watched the Canadian come from behind the plastic man and prod it with the end of his gun. It didn't move on its own or react as he slapped the long knife from its inert hand. Using the shotgun he knocked the mannequin over and proceeded to stomp it to pieces as Julia breathed out a sigh of relief.

It was a strange thing to watch from out on the street and stranger still that it made Julia feel slightly better about the whole thing. Sure, it may have been an overly paranoid thing to do but it was better safe than sorry here. Once the mannequin was in too many pieces to be a threat Chuck returned to them with his shotgun slung over his shoulder.

"Happy?" Victor asked him.

"Very."

"You do realize you just destroyed an inanimate object for absolutely no reason, right?"

"An inanimate object that won't be getting up and running away any time soon." Chuck added.

"You did look kind of silly." Julia grinned.

"I feel a little silly now. But I'll be damned if it pulls another stunt like back at that car when it's in fifty little pieces."

"Shall we proceed?" Victor ask, unsurprisingly annoyed by the entire incident. He led them into thicker fog but Julia wasn't worried. She was half sure that even in pitch black conditions her man could find his way around. She knew though that he was hurting without the use of his ESP or radar or whatever it was. Ever the perfectionist and always seeking to be cautious she knew that walking around without his special skill was driving him crazy.

The huge lumber mill rose out of the mist and they nearly walked by it before Victor slowed to a halt at the its corner. Peeking around the side he waved them over and they huddled together at the edge of the building.

"This is?" Julia whispered.

"Yes." he confirmed.

"This building is huge." Chuck murmured thought it was a superfluous observation. The mil took up nearly the entire block and went up three floors. Made from a red brick that had faded almost to brown it looked older and even more abandoned than the rest of the town.

"Logging used to be big a century ago." Victor explained. "This building was empty before the calamity struck. We were set up in the basement where the paper processing equipment was stored. Perhaps we can find some sheets laying around down there still."

"Any chance the Dark Man will be here?" Chuck asked softly.

"Doubtful." Victor shook his head. "If they're still using the place to process sheets then they'd have a death wish. He would have known about this place before I would have. If they are here then we're in trouble for sure."

"Why?"

"Because it means they're either not scared of him anymore or they've found a way to defeat him. Neither bodes particulary well for us." the knight said. "Are you both ready?"

"I was." Julia grumbled.

"Remember to be as quiet as possible. I'd much rather avoid conflict and bypass threats instead of running in and starting to shoot." he advised them. With a nod from the other two he stole forward to the side entrance and carefully pulled it open. They slipped into a dusty, gloomy building even less bright than the church. Its windows were grimy to the point of almost complete opacity and Julia had to let her eyes adjust to avoid running into the many object simply laying around.

Picking his way carefully forward towards the rear of the the room Victor moved quietly and Julia imitated him. Feeling out each step before taking it she avoided tripping over hammers, garbage and discarded wood scraps that littered the old factory floor. Bulky machinery filled up the space and almost everything was caked in thick dust.

Reaching the back of the room Victor motioned them to join him by a set of heavy, iron bulkhead doors built into the floor. Gripping the large, wrought iron handle he slowly lifted up and shook with exertion to keep the door from creaking. Chuck helped ease the weight and together they set one of the doors down gently against the floor with only faint metal squeaking. The stairs downward were completely black and Victor whispered, "No lights just yet. At the bottom of the stairs there's a door. Just feel your way."

Tapping his metal foot Victor climbed into the stairwell and worked his way down. Julia looked at Chuck who only shrugged as he followed the knight into the dark hole. Not wanting to get into trouble but also not wanting to die on a set of stairs she couldn't see Julia wasn't thrilled to take up the rear of the three person procession. The steps were cold, filthy and she had to move her foot in a circle to feel the edges of each one. Glad to be wearing gloves she steadied herself on the equally gross wall as they moved to the bottom.

It was some fifteen steps down when she finally touched the floor. Julia could not see her own hand in front of her face and put it out to avoid running into Chuck's back. A few feet away she heard a door being slowly opened and a slash of light cut through the darkness around her. She could see the outlines of Chuck and Victor in front of her as well as bright illumination pouring out from the corners of the door Victor had cracked.

"Oh shit, is someone here?" Chuck said in a hushed tone.

"What are we going to do?" Julia asked just as quietly.

"We have to find out what and who is here." Victor whispered. "There's going to be a number of storage rooms before the main mill. Let's see if we can find out what's going to before letting anyone know we're here."

"What if it's your old friends?" Julia worried.

"I don't want to kill anyone!" Chuck whispered vehemently.

"I don't want to either but if they're in there then at least shoot to disable." Victor urged. "They won't hesitate to kill you if they can."

"This sucks!" Julia said.

"Deal with it. Now, directly across from us at the other end will be the main stairwell for the building. The sheet room is right next to that. All of the other room will be smaller offices and storage. Stay behind me and be quiet." Victor instructed. Cracking the door enough for them to squeeze through he entered the basement level first. With ample light to see Julia stayed an arm's length behind Chuck as they followed.

It was definitely modern technology keeping the basement lit up. Mold grew unchecked along the floor and the cracks in the walls which were of questionable integrity. Creeping along foot by tense foot they were almost halfway to the other end of the building when Julia very clearly heard men laughing. Victor froze at the front of the column and Julia immediately put a hand on her gun. After a second the sound disappeared and the knight quickly led them to the nearest intersection to hide behind.

"Crap." Chuck whispered when they had all gotten out of the main hallway.

"Definitely have company." Julia agreed.

"What do we do?"

"Stay here." Victor said. "I'm going to go over to the doors and see if I can make anything out."

"Vic! What if they hear you!" Julia protested.

"Aim carefully." he suggested. Sliding the long, gleaming sword out of the scabbard the knight tip toed down the hall. Julia didn't like any of this and moved to the other side of the intersection to get a clear shot at the door. Chuck stayed where he was as Victor skulked down the well lit hall. Keeping a pistol in her hand she fidgeted uncomfortably as he neared the thick doors by the other stairwell. Sliding up to them Victor paused as the faint sounds of conversation drifted back towards Julia. After an agonizing and interminable minute or two he started to back up towards them and hurried the last twenty feet to safety. Chuck joined them as Victor sheathed his sword and Julia silently warded off a heart attack.

"There's a few of them in there." the knight reported.

"How many?" Chuck asked.

"Not sure. At least four or so. I don't think the doors are locked but we won't be able to just walk in without them knowing. The room is big but those doors are loud."

"They have to leave at some point." Chuck reasoned.

"Don't be so sure. There's enough room to set up a decently sized camp site in there."

"Well what if-" Chuck started but was interrupted by the beginning of a sound from far away that reached them ever underground. It was a long, drawn out siren reminiscent of an air raid siren of yesteryear. Julia felt a stab of panic in her gut and each one of them knew well what the sound meant. It heralded the beginning of the change to the true Silent Hill, the one lurking just below the surface of the one they were in now. The area around them was about to morph into something dark, something unholy that would be the stuff of nightmares.

All Victor had to do was point at one of the doors and they all scurried to get into it. Julia opened it to find a small storage closet which she went into anyway. Chuck crammed in after her and Victor backed in last as the horn continued to blare from some unknown location. The ground began to rumble as the ample light of the basement started to dim and Julia fought the urge to panic even as she was pressed together with the two men. Victor shut the door behind him as the lights began to fail completely and they were again plunged into total darkness.

"Ow, man, watch the shield!" Chuck complained.

"Get your elbow out of my stomach if you're going to bitch." Julia whispered harshly.

"Quiet, both of you!" Victor ordered.

Julia hardly dared to breath as she heard the sounds of things moving out in the hallway. She could hear the sound of a heavy door being opened and quick, deliberate footsteps entering the hall. Despite the cramped quarters she jumped when she heard automatic gunfire rip through the silence like a thunder bolt splitting a calm lake. More quick foot steps and another short burst of bullets came afterward and she heard the moan of a dying Silent Hill monstrosity from all too close by.

"Clear." a man said from around twenty feet away.

"You see that shit?" someone else said proudly.

"Yeah, yeah."

"I'm 2 for 2, baby. I'll put 20 down that says I get the high score today."

The procession of soldiers laughed and stomped away to the nearby stairs and the sounds of their voices faded as Julia sweat due to both heat and anxiety. "Let's go!" Chuck urged and Victor thankfully opened the door to let them spill out into the hallway.

It was as dark in the hall as it had been in the room they occupied and she heard the click of Victor's helmet light. His powerful beam revealed a radically different version of the building they had been in just moments ago. The paint peeled walls that seem ready to fall had been replaced with solid stone walls. Far from flawless the walls featured deep cracks and fissures which split the rock like rivers snaking through a desert. The faint glow of light could be seen from a few of the openings leading Julia to think that there was a light source behind the walls struggling to get free.

Fumbling for the flashlight in her bag of ammo Julia clicked it on held it in her fist horizontally. Drawing a pistol and steadying it on the back of her flashlight holding hand she had the gun and light pointed in the same direction. It had a name like Barry or Terry's grip that she couldn't remember but an instructor at the gun range showed her how to do it with a flashlight once and she'd loved the concept. It was also true that she had seen it on TV before and didn't mind mimicking the fictional characters on them but she did resolve to try to stop using entertainment for matters that affected her survival.

Chuck clicked his shotgun light on and they swept around the new hallway for signs of unnatural life. Alone for the moment Julia relaxed just a little. In this version of Silent Hill one had to be doubly on their guard. "We'll check the door." Victor said slid his blade free. Leading them forward they stepped over the corpses of a couple leg creatures the soldiers had shot for sport. Thoroughly dead Julia still kept an eye on them as they passed towards the thick set of doors that they had seen in the first version of the building. Now changed into wood they were just as heavy looking and as the trio drew closer she saw some kind of red symbol carved onto them. Victor stopped short and quickly sheathed his sword when he too saw the symbol.

"Ash, everyone." he whispered and they hurried into a side corridor out of the door's line of sight. Setting down his shield he produced the small pouch they'd found in Rosewater Park, dipped his fingers into the soot and lifted his helmet to dab his forehead with ash. Motioning them closer he repeated the act on the other two of them. The sweat on Julia's forehead mixed with the ash and it stuck to her as she got a whiff of the smoke tinged powder that had another smell she'd never encountered before. It was almost like wood but had a distinctively organic component that she could not identify. It was probably best that she didn't know what it was as Victor applied another bit to Chuck's head.

Carefully putting the ash away the knight again put his weapon in his hand and led them towards the door. Julia had no idea what they were protecting themselves against or even if that was what was really going on but if Victor made them do it she assumed it was for the best. Stepping along quietly their lights played on the heavy doors and menacing symbol with their own shadows dancing in front of them. It was unnerving but Julia was moments away from wishing that the light show was her biggest concern.

As they drew closer to the door the air seemed to thicken around them until it quite literally began to impede her motion. She felt like she was walking through water that wasn't there and even lifted her hand up to test the new found resistance. The closer they came to the door the heaviest and harder it was to move forward until her limbs felt like they were being dragged down by air as thick as molasses. Victor slowly put up a hand for them to stop some ten feet from the door and he alone slogged forward through whatever it was that was restricting their motion.

Obviously struggling to get closer to the door Victor looking like he was doing some kind of idiotic pantomime of walking when the symbol on the door suddenly flashed to life. Blazing a bright, glowing red she could see all of the creepy details that were not apparent when it was a lifeless carving in the door. A large circle with arcane writing all around the edge there were three more circles in the very center. It burned an intense, almost malicious red that burned into her vision for a second before it just as quickly went dark as if it never made a move in the first place.

Quite simultaneously the heavy feeling in her limbs disappeared and she could move normally. Far too close to the door and possibly more enemies to ask what the hell had just happened she could only look at Victor as he turned back to them. Appearing just as confused as them he shrugged and pointed at the door handle. Frustrated at the lack of explanation Julia nevertheless gathered up at the door with the other two. Counting down on his fingers from five Victor reached one and then burst into the room. They charged in guns first but did not expect the bright light in the room to temporarily blind them as they blinked at their new surroundings.

There was indeed a camp set up inside the doors as Victor had predicted. Sleeping mats, food, ammunition and wooden crates placed together to form tables and chairs which filled the first part of the room. It had been half cleared of the lumber processing machinery which took up the rest of the space and looked like the floor above them. Built into the walls were numerous lights that ran on large batteries strewn about the floor which turned the dark room into near day with the artificial brightness. Julia realized with utter shock that this room was untouched by the darkness that warped the rest of the building and was almost like an oasis of normalcy in the nightmare version of Silent Hill around them.

Two men in black combat armor that somewhat resembled SWAT uniforms sat playing cards some teen feet away from them. Both the soldiers and the intruders froze and regarded each other with a considerable amount of confusion. One man's hand of cards slipped out and fell onto the floor with a quiet clatter. Not knowing quite what to do Julia simply stared at the men as they stared back and neither side acted.

One of the men's hands jerked back ever so slightly and only then did Julia notice that they were both packing sidearms on their belt holsters. Having never pointed a gun at a human person Julia was paralyzed with hesitation when Chuck stepped forward and said, "Don't move."

For whatever reason this snapped Julia out of her self imposed inactivity and she swung the end of her pistol up at the one on the left who had moved first. "Go get their guns." Chuck said to Victor and Julia didn't dare take her eyes off the soldiers to see what was going on to her left. Inching forward with his shield high and sword at hip level Victor moved from next to her to get closer to the soldiers.

"My friend is going to secure your guns. You so much as-" Chuck said and almost at the same time both men went for their sidearms. Chuck's shotgun roared in the small space and Julia jumped at the abrupt boom in her ear. Victor charged ahead as the man on the right was blasted off his crate and everything slowed down around her. She heard another shot of a smaller gun go off and ricochet sound just before Victor crashed headlong into the man on the right shield first. Unable to do anything for fear of hitting an ally Julia stood in half shock as Chuck swarmed forward and Victor's bright blade flashed in the air.

Julia saw the knight lift his shield up and heard a sickening crack as Chuck trained his gun on the man he had shot. Seconds passed and she realized she was gripping both her pistol and gun with white knuckles. Swallowing hard she waited as Victor looked over at Chuck and then back to her. "Is everyone all right?" he asked.

Breathing out a pent up breath Julia holstered her pistol and simply dropped her flashlight from her shaking hands. Joining the knight she saw that he had slashed the pistol out of the man's hand and broke his face with the shield. Moving almost numbly Julia retrieved what looked like a Glock 19 from nearby the soldier's bloody hand and patted the man down for more weapons. Pulled a large knife from his boot strap she kept the gun in her hand and tossed the knife aside before joining Chuck. His man had taken some buckshot to the face and was bleeding down his cheek but seemed to have taken most of the shot on his armor and wasn't bleeding from the chest. Looking over at her the Canadian looked as pale as she felt. Disarming the second man Julia set their guns down on a farther away crate before slumping down onto an empty one.

"Well that was...Christ." she blinked.

"Who are these guys? What were they doing here?" Chuck asked and was still holding his shotgun at the ready.

"Mercenaries." Victor murmured.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." he said and flicked his sword free of blood before sheathing it. "I know the Order. Their people are not...trained like this. I was right though, something's wrong."

"How so?" Julia asked as one of the soldiers groaned.

"Normally they'd only be here for a short time to avoid Nothing and Pyramid Head. These men look like they've been dug in for some time. Either they've found a way to avoid them or..." he trailed off.

"Or what?"

"Or they've defeated both demons." Victor finished uncomfortably.

"Hey, I hate to interrupt, but won't those other guys be coming back? Like at any moment?" Chuck cut in.

"Oh. Right." Julia said.

"Chuck, get these two tied up somehow. Jewel get those guns and-" Victor stopped short as he scanned the room.

"What is it Vic?"

Pointing at the rear of the room he guided her vision to another set of doors. "Another room?" she asked.

"No...that shouldn't be there. It wasn't the last time I was here." he breathed.

"Is that bad?"

"I think...uh...anyway...Jewel, see those rifles over there? I want those guns broken and inoperable." Victor shook himself out of it. Chuck had creatively ripped the cords of some of the lights out of place and was using them to lash the soldier's hands together as Julia began disabling the combat rifles laid out near the card playing table.

"And their friends?" Chuck asked.

"I..." Victor started. "I don't know. Listen for their return, I have to see what's behind that door."

"Vic? Are you sure?" Julia asked worriedly.

He didn't answer as he moved away from them towards the back of the room. Julia looked up at Chuck who shrugged like there was nothing they could do about it. Field stripping the rifles she removed the bolts and dropped them into her bag as Victor moved almost mesmerized to the back of the room. She stood up and watched him put his hands on the door which was curiously barred from their side.

"Vic?" she raised her voice at him. Taking his hands down he turned and quickly strode back to her with determination on his face. "What is it?" she asked.

"We have to buy time. Bar the door or something." he announced excitedly.

"What? Why? What's going on?"

"There's something past that door." he said with a glint in his eye. "I can feel it. Literally, again."

She was concerned what that meant and how happy Victor was to engage his sixth sense but Julia finished her work swiftly to help the knight pull some heavy machinery towards the door. At least if they had to shoot their way back out of the room later they would have plenty of cover. It was a minor comfort but at the moment she would take whatever she could get.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Deep Sea Researchers

With Julia's help Victor pushed a heavy mechanical lathe in front of the inward swinging doors. It would be difficult getting into the room with it in place but just for good measure they heaved an old printer against the door as well. Chuck had sat the two soldiers up back to back and tied cords around the both of them Old West style. He had found a first aid kit and was bandaging up the soldiers while the barricade was being built. The mercenaries had recovered for the most part but with injuries to both of their faces and gauze keeping pressure on their wounds neither spoke. While the knight was still very wary of the self-admitted killer tending to them he was pleased that in tandem they were able to overcome the mystery soldiers without permanent harm to anyone.

Ready to move on Victor motioned the other two behind him and hefted his shield. Heading to the back of the room he heard someone croak, "Whhrrrrr...waaahht." Turning around he saw that the soldier who had taken the buckshot was trying to speak through the bandages. Going back to him Victor kneeled down in front of the soldier and studied his pained eyes.

"What's down there?" the knight demanded.

"Duuhn guh." he got out.

"You're working for the Order aren't you?" Victor asked and the mercenary did not respond. "Save yourself the pain. I know you are. I know who hired you, too. Spindly little man in a robe? Long nose? Stares at you from a thousand yards? I'll bet he's promised you a way out of here."

Victor sat back on his haunches. "There is no way out of here. Not for you, not for me if the town wills it. Whatever you've been promised, you won't get it. You're going to die here, you and whoever is with you. Do you know why we've left you alive, patched you up?"

The soldier shook his head and Victor clarified, "Because you're just as trapped as we are in the end. We don't want to fight real people any more than you do. The man you work for doesn't care how many of you die as long as you fulfill your purpose. We're not your enemy. He is and so is this town. Take that back to whoever you answer to."

Standing over the soldiers Victor added, "I know something old is beyond that door. Something you were probably told to keep safe. If it will thwart the Order's plans, we're going to let it go. I suggest getting out of Silent Hill if you can because whatever it is, it won't like being caged up."

Returning to his companions they headed towards the rear of the room. The wide doors that were not present the last time Victor visited this place were barred with a heavy, medieval style plank that took all three of them to lift. Throwing the beam down to the floor with a loud slam the other two readied weapons as Victor touched the door again. There was the faintest trace of an old, powerful darkness that his atrophied senses could just barely pick out. Had he never left Silent Hill he was sure that he could have detected its presence before they even came down to this floor it was so strong. It put him slightly at ease to know that his telepathic abilities had not completely abandoned him since his time out in the real world. If he was walking into a massive concentration of monsters at least he would know ahead of time instead of going in blind.

Pulling open the heavy doors he was hit with a rush of cold air that seemed desperate to be released. Bracing himself against it and squinting in the sudden chill Victor was surprised to find an old rock stairwell before him. Much like the room beforehand the stairwell was excessively well lit with multiple emergency lights keeping the slick stone shining. The steps themselves were hastily constructed and uneven in addition to nearly all of them being wet. There was the sound of dripping, trickling water coming from below them and Victor was at a loss to explain how he had never seen this structure before.

Most curious were the runes scratched into the walls of the narrow stairwell. Almost all of them, if he was reading them correctly, were for reinforcing the walls themselves to near indestructibility. Turning around he found that the entirety of the door he had just opened was covered in similar runes. None were concerned with slowing progress or keeping someone away from the walls or door. They only attempted to turn the ordinary stone and metal they were etched onto an unimaginable density and toughness.

"What...the hell is all of this?" Chuck asked.

"Whatever is down here, they were trying to keep it in." Victor explained. "We're close to something dangerous for sure."

"Peachy." Julia complained in her trademark optimism.

"Oh, what was the deal with that red one on the front door?" Chuck asked and Victor was reminded of the rune guarding the door to the camp.

"Ah. That. It was meant to keep people and creatures at bay. Had it not burned out we would have never been able to get near it." the knight said.

"Why did we then?"

"Honestly not positive." Victor admitted. "I've never seen a rune react that way before. I was going to try to break it physically but...I think the ash we were given did the job."

"The ash broke the magic thingy?" Julia asked.

"I think so. Would explain why it failed when we got close and why we were instructed to use it around the Order's runes." Victor surmised.

"What about these ones?" Chuck nodded at the ones covering the walls.

"They're still in operation." Victor said as he scanned them. "They're not targeting us you see. Just keeping the walls from being shattered."

"By what?"

Victor shrugged and Julia shook her head. "Great."

"Come on then. Let's go see what they're keeping down here." Victor said and took the first step downwards. He could sense their reluctance but the others followed anyway as he moved carefully down the rail-less stairwell. They went about eight steps down before turning and going down another eight. The knight counted three flights before coming to one of the sources of the water sound. On either side of the stairwell were the open and roughly hewn remnants of a sewer tunnel. The construction of the stairs must have run into city's network and water was leaking in from both sides.

Making a mental note of it Victor was especially careful not to slip as they descended further down into the earth. Amazingly the runes had been inscribed in every inch of the stairwell as he counted three, five, nine more flights of stairs down. It must have taken months just to create the runes although the steps were suspiciously older than that. The air also seemed to grow colder with every step and at this rate he was sure that soon he would be able to see his own breath.

At the twelfth flight they finally entered the heart of the operation. Victor was dismayed to find a large, circular room dominated by a ten foot well and a modern crane. There were so many lights laying around the room was lit up like a fashion runaway and it almost hurt his eyes just being in there. The trickle of water from the sewer found its way all the way down here and was draining into the well which was quite deep as far as he could tell. Constructed above it was a crane with a winch that dropped a steel cable into the darkness of the hole below. Several industrial strength cooling units in the corner pumped out frigid air and Victor could indeed see his breath as he took in the confusing set up before him.

Runes were etched into absolutely every available surface and even onto the machinery still in operation. Studying them closely Victor was concerned to read that a fair number of them were concerned with indestructibility but also for warding off spirit attacks. These were the kinds of wards the Order used to paralyze or deter Silent Hill's monsters from getting near.

"Vic?" Julia asked. "Do you have any idea what all of this is for?"

"None." he said blankly. "Everything here has some kind of ritual significance – the cold, the lights, the runes. I don't know what it's all supposed to mean."

They spread out as Victor contemplated the meaning of the room. Julia poked around at the many lights attached to the moist walls while Chuck prodded the crane set up. Victor crouched down to examine the markings and found the symbols were carved by an expert hand for sure but there were signs of hasty work on many of them. They would hold up effectively if tested but were not flawlessly written. This could have been a fatal mistake if one's life depended on a single rune but given the number of them here they likely counted on a quantity versus quality approach to housing whatever was down here.

Victor heard a mechanical _thunk!_ and suddenly a yellow light on the crane pulsed to life along with a warning blare. Alarmed Victor whipped free his sword and spotted Chuck at the helm of the crane's controls.

"Chuck!" Julia exclaimed.

"Um, oops." the Canadian said. "This panel was wicked cool so I pressed a couple buttons..."

"Idiot!" Victor cursed. The crane began to coil up the steel wire and draw whatever was in the well further towards them. "Shut it off!"

"Uh..." Chuck trailed over the blaring siren. "I can't?"

Hurrying over to the panel Victor and Julia tried to make sense of the buttons and commands the panel had. There was a blinking button near the top right that the knight assumed was an off switch so he depressed it in the hopes it would cease the process. In response the winch almost doubled in speed and began twisting the steel wire up at a dizzying rate.

"Bloody hell." the knight swore. "Get ready."

"For what!" Julia squawked.

"I have no idea." Victor said and backed up from the crane to get some room. The others did the same and pointed firearms at the well as the crane groaned with the strain of it's load. The metal wire had coiled to almost five feet thick and must have fallen hundreds of feet down before they had unwittingly triggered the reversal of the process. Bracing themselves when the machinery began to slow down Victor's pulse quickened the first moment he saw _something_ come up from the darkness below.

The sound of a gun popped by his ear in the cold air as Julia fired on a mass of ice that had been dredged up from deep below them. Dripping water the massive block of ice had a chunk blasted off as the single bullet slammed into its surface. Turning to look at his woman the knight raised an eyebrow in his helmet as she shrugged. "Sorry, nerves." she said.

The ice was cloudy and difficult to see through but there was something dark in the center of the nine foot or so long block of frozen water. Curiously lights had been built into the ice so that the cube itself was glowing with illumination. When it was clear that this was the only threat presenting itself at the moment Victor put his sword away and set down his shield to inspect what they had found. Not wanting to disturb the controls he tried to pull the crane over the edge of the well so they could get good look but it was locked in place.

"Here, this joy stick looks like it'll do the trick." Julia offered.

"Please, no more random button pushing." Victor pleaded.

"Oh, what's the worst that could happen now?" she reasoned and pushed the stick to the left. Amazingly the crane jerked left and swung the payload towards Victor who jumped out of the way. Glaring at Julia who only giggled slightly he backed up as she more slowly brought the large cube out from over the well to hang a couple of feet over the floor they stood on.

"See? No harm done." she said happily and the three of them surrounded the ice block. Using the back of his glove to wipe away the frost and condensation on the outside layer of the cube Victor managed to get a bit more clarity to see what was trapped inside the ice. To his utter shock and disbelief he made out a man trapped inside. Undoubtedly a corpse by now the knight could still see hands, feet and dark hair of someone long since departed from this world. There was something lodged in it as well, a long metal object that seemed to be coming out of the body.

"Is that...a guy?" Julia wrinkled her nose.

"Oh my God..." Chuck breathed. "It's him."

"Who?"

"The Dark Man..." the Canadian incredulously as if he didn't believe his own words.

"You can't be sure of that." Victor said but he was already beginning to make sense of everything they had seen up to that point.

"It's him all right." the killer insisted. "Look at the bits of redness around his hands. They're always bloody."

As much as Victor didn't want to admit it the theory made sense. The excessive protection, the standing guard, the ritualized prison. All of it pointed to ceremonial and spiritual weapons against an enemy who would not respond to normal weapons. The Order knew their enemy well and used his weaknesses against him to form an effective cage he could not break away from.

"We have to get him out of there." Chuck concluded.

"Is that... a good idea?" Julia raised an eyebrow.

"No, not really." Victor answered. "But this is an enemy of my enemy situation. If the Order managed to lock him up that means they're up to something big. I'm not thrilled about letting him go – in fact I'd much rather keep him like this." Victor said. "But he'll have answers and we might need his help."

Rubbing his eyes with both hands in the cold air Victor added, "I'm going to regret this, but get him out."

"Stand back." Chuck said and steadied himself with his shotgun against his shoulder. The report of the buckshot rattled the walls as he ejected smoking spent shell after spent shell onto the refrigerated floor. Chunks of ice a foot long fell off the block as he chipped away at it like a violent archeologist freeing a wooly mammoth from a ten thousand year nap.

The block began to fall apart as Chuck shot the top of it and the lack of tension caused most of the block to hit the floor. Still half locked in the ice the body was now mostly exposed to the open air. The metal object was a curious blade with a triangular handle that Victor had never seen before which someone had plunged through the sternum. His left eye had been torn out and his other remained open as it stared in death. The left socket wasn't red but blackened and possibly rotted from the frostbite. Wrapped in a black straight jacket with the trapping buckles broken Nothing was frozen as solid as the ice that had trapped him.

Setting down his empty shotgun the Canadian produced one of the knives taken from the soldier's camp and began chipping at the ice still holding the body. Julia joined him and after several minutes of repeated stabbing they loosed the dead man's head from the ice. With only half his torso and leg still locked in ice Chuck gripped an arm and braced his foot against the block.

"Hold it still." he instructed and Julia got behind the block to brace it. Chuck grunted in exertion as there was the sound of a peeling crack when the body was finally separated from the ice. Falling back on his rear the killer wiped his hands on his pants and held the body while Julia gripped the sword. Pulling the glinting sword free Julia nearly dropped it from the unexpected weight.

"Yeesh." Chuck panted. The pilgrim used both hands to inspect the swrod which looked so frail that it would probably break in actual combat. Swinging it around a little she then offered it to Victor who eagerly examined the handle. Every bit of the blade was indeed silver and a spell of some kind was inscribed on the triangle that made up the hilt and connected to the end of the pommel. To his surprise he did not recognize any of the symbols finely carved into the weapon. This was unusual for a number of reasons as he was a master of the Order's runes and would have at least been aware of some other magic from the area.

"What's it say?" Julia asked.

"This wasn't made by the Order." he furrowed his brow. "I have no idea what it says. I know that's there's a spell of some kind on it but I don't know what it does. If it was used to trap Nothing then it must be powerful magic..." he said and reminded himself of an old story he was once told during his training.

"Wait. I think I know what it's for." he said as the details of that long forgotten conversation resurfaced in his memory. "I remember one of my Order trainers telling me what to do when attacked by a ghost."

"A ghost?" Julia tilted her head to the side.

"Yeah. There were special runes for keeping them away from you but you couldn't really kill one outright. How could you? They were already dead. The most you could hope to do was trap one."

"Trap one how?"

"You'd beat it to the ground the old fashioned way and then pin it with a special sword. A holy sword with a triangle handle..."

"That thing?" Chuck asked. "Why would they use it on him?"

"Not sure." Victor scratched his chin. "Maybe they didn't even want his spirit escaping this prison."

"Kind of overkill isn't it?" Chuck said. "I mean, the dude was clearly dead already. Then they stabbed him with a sword for good measure. Why freeze him and drop him in a well to boot?"

"All of this was meant to seal his soul away." Victor explained. "Obviously they did their work very well."

"Yeah. Now what?" Julia asked. "We should probably figure out what to do fast. Those guys are probably trying to break in upstairs right now or they will be soon."

"We can get out through the sewers." Victor said as he'd already thought of this. "It won't be pleasant but we should be able to avoid more soldiers that way."

"That sounds...dangerous."

"Better than fighting men with assault rifles."

"What do we do with him?" Chuck asked as he crouched down to look at the cold, dead face of Nothing.

"I'm not sure. He's dead a few times over isn't he?" Julia asked. "What can we do?"

"Should we...bury him or something?" the killer suggested.

"Where, exactly?" Victor asked.

"Uh...I don't know. There's water down in the well right? I guess we can throw him down there. That's like a burial by sea, right?"

"If it makes you feel better." Victor said. "Just make it quick."

"Dark Man..." he began solemnly if a little strange for the setting. "I said I owed you and I wasn't ever able to repay what you did for me. I hope that this – fuck!" the Canadian blurted and scrambled hurriedly away from the body.

"What!" Julia said in alarm.

"The...the...fuckin'...!" he stammered.

"Use your words."

Pointing at the body like it had just attacked him he said, "That fucker just blinked!"

"Uh..."

"Come again?" Victor queried as he thought he just misheard the other man.

"He blinked!" Chuck repeated.

"You're sure about that?" Julia tried to confirm.

"Yeah I'm sure! I was looking right at him!" he protested.

"Are you sure you weren't making a mistake?" Victor pressed.

"I was watching him. The eye was open, it closed for a half a second and opened again."

"The dead guy. The one in the ice cube with the giant, sharp piece of metal through him." Julia stated.

"I know how it sounds but I'm not making it up." Chuck asserted. Seeing their skeptical faces he pointed down at Nothing and said, "Fine, don't believe me? Watch him for a minute. I bet you he does it again."

All three of them bent over the corpse and Victor watched it for what seemed like an eternity but was really less than a minute. It did nothing to indicate it was going to do anything but what a dead body should and remain laying there on the floor. Victor did note that Nothing looked a little thinner in the face since the last time they saw each other though that could have just been his imagination. Maybe the act of being frozen had over time caused the skin to shrink as the body slowly decomposed.

"Can we go?" Julia sighed.

"Just give it another minute or so." Chuck insisted.

"You were just seeing things is all. We're in Silent Hill after all."

"I know what I saw-"

The supposedly dead body did indeed blink as Chuck was halfway through his sentence and Julia jerked away from it in shock.

"Fuck me..." she whispered.

"Hmm. Interesting." Victor pondered.

"Dude, the body just blinked." Julia said.

"I _told_ you."

"This changes things." Victor declared. "We can't leave him here to be captured again. If we can revive him we can get to the bottom of this."

"Aren't we at the bottom of this already?" Chuck asked.

"Are you trying to be funny again?"

"No?"

"What are you talking about then?"

"Isn't this what we came here for? Doesn't this explain everything?" the killer reasoned without making any sense.

"I think I'm more confused now than before as to why we're here." Julia said. "And how exactly all this was set up."

"We can talk later. Right now we need to get free before the men above break through. Chuck, get your friend and let's go. Julia, you're behind me with the shotgun." Victor ordered.

"Aw man..." the Canadian sighed. "He's all...wet...and dead...kind of."

"We're losing time. Come on." Victor said and smiled a small smile for the other man's discomfort. Julia gave him a disapproving look as he hefted his shield and led them back the way they came.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Q & Not So Much A

The escort force moved through the quiet town just below a jog. Their silenced weapons quickly and relatively quietly eliminated scattered resistance as they rounded building after building to reach their destination hiding in the mist. It was a large brick structure that had once been an industrial factory. The soldiers poured in the front entrance and swept downstairs where more of their black clad comrades waited.

Milling around a set of broken doors the only man not holding a gun stormed past all of the others to where the medics were tending to the wounded. Shying away from him the conversations died down and heads turned to the floor as the commander took stock of the room.

"What in the nine hells is going on here!" Hulme raged. "Where is Finnian!"

"Here, sir." one of the men stepped out. "We were attacked."

"No shit. Anyone not a medic or part of my escort, get out of here and go find me a trail. Move!" he barked as the men hurriedly made themselves scarce. "Why is most of my task force here tending to wounded and wasting time standing around, Finnian?"

"Back up was called in sir. We were waiting for your orders after securing the area." the lance corporal took a breath before he went on. "The men here were not just attacked by standard hostiles. These were people. Armed people."

Several things ran through Hulme's mind and half of them were mono-syllabic curses. Random people walking into Silent Hill was always a possibility according to his employer but they had never encountered any up until now. It also meant that paradoxically other people could stroll into town when he and his men were trapped at every turn. Taking off his tactical helmet Hulme rubbed tired eyes and took a seat on one of the crates scattered around the room.

"How many and what did they look like?"

"Three, sir. I...don't know what they looked like." Finnian confessed.

"Three people broke into your locked and fortified position with some kind of magic doohickey on the front and overwhelmed all five of you? All without you getting a good look at them?"

The trooper looked extremely uncomfortable and choose his words carefully. "Three of us were on patrol when the attack happened..."

"I don't recall this unit being assigned a patrol route for a specific reason, Lance Corporal. Who authorized this action?"

"I did, sir." the soldier writhed his hands.

"And your reason for this unsanctioned, unnecessary waste of precious ammunition? Which led to dereliction of your duty and failure of your very simple task to stay on guard?"

"Um...well...we've been here some time and the men were complaining about R&R..."

"R&R?" Hulme echoed. "R. And R"

The soldier clearly wanted to be somewhere else when Hulme got up and stood a few inches away with a withering glare on his hard features. "You did this for _sport_!" he screamed at the younger soldier. "I've got two wounded and a primary fucking objective missing because you wanted to have fun! I should shoot you myself! You couldn't have screwed up worse on purpose!"

The words hit the other man like physical blows and he trembled in front of the commander. "Get out of my sight." Hulme growled menacingly and the other man nearly sprinted out of the room. Rubbing his forehead in disbelief the old soldier joined the medics tending to the two injured privates. Ryan and Zoller were their last names as he recalled and the former's face was being wrapped up to keep in place what appeared to be a broken jaw.

"He going to be able to function?" Hulme asked the senior medic available.

"Won't be able to talk but he can shoot." the typically businesslike specialist answered. "Going to hurt like hell though."

"That's going to be his reward for failing to do his job." Hulme said as he stared directly at Ryan. "What about this one?" he pointed at Zoller who was having some paste rubbed into the holes that flecked his face.

"Took a shotgun hit. Combat armor held up just fine and he's a little bruised but we're going to need to pull those bits of shot out back at the triage."

"He okay to talk?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Over here Zoller." Hulme motioned and pulled two crates together. Getting a nod from the medic the shaky private sat with the Commander almost knee to knee.

"Want to tell me what happened, son?"

"Three of them." the private said and it was obviously unpleasant to talk. Hulme didn't care at the moment though.

"How did they get in?"

"Door open. Patrol left it."

This much the commander expected but he'd been assured by his employer that the disturbing and undeniably effective mumbo jumbo written on the door would keep out any intruders. It was meant for the monstrous inhabitants of the town but should have worked on their mystery guests.

"They got the drop on your I'm assuming." he said.

The private nodded. "Went for Glock, they fired. Don't remember what happened after."

"What did they look like?"

"Two civilians. Young guy, curly hair, only one who talked. Shotgun. Woman, short, long black hair, cute. Nine mil. Third guy. Tall. Wearing green armor. Like a knight. Big shield. Sword. No visible features."

This triggered something in Hulme's mind. One of their first objectives in the town was to secure an apartment in an unremarkable building with the assistance of their employer's men. They recovered some choice items as well as a library and a suit of armor complete with matching sword. All of the items were taken by Marcus; Hulme now wondered if the person that was supposed to be living there had returned for his belongings.

"Then what?"

"Tied us up. Bandaged us."

"They gave you first aid?" Hulme blinked. "What for?"

"Goodwill. Message for you."

"Me?"

"Don't want to fight us. Said enemy is employer and the town. Said no way out."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Commander. They didn't know. What was down there." Zoller managed to get out.

"What?"

"Just wanted to fight employer. Knew something being guarded here, not what."

This deeply troubled Hulme for a number of reasons but he kept his face passive. "Not a word of this to anyone." he ordered and the private nodded. Taking his leave the commander strolled to the back of the room and to the icy stairwell. Contemplating exactly how he was going to punish the idiotic lance corporal he found the soldiers investigating the sewer escape route and squeezed by them. Reaching the bottom he met his right hand man Westfall in the holding chamber.

"Commander. Was wondering when you were going to show up." the Lt. Colonel said.

"I can't even begin to imagine how badly this has been fubar'd." Hulme sighed. "As if the leaving thing wasn't enough now we've actually screwed up one of our primary objectives. This operation is going from bad to worse faster than any I've been a part of."

"Certainly looks like that, David." Westfall agreed. "This though. Marcus is going to be beside himself."

"I know. Not eager to break the news either."

Puffing out a breath of mist Westfall shivered. "Colder than a witch's tit in here. They sure did a good job building this place. Just makes our failure that much worse."

Circling the extremely deep well the commander crouched down by the still remaining ice that littered the floor. The creature they'd sealed away in the cube was reported to be more dangerous than the entire mercenary occupying force combined but Hulme assumed it was more Silent Hill lunacy. As far as he was concerned the body was just that and if they were going to be paid large sums of money to guard it then they would do so gladly. There was something off about the whole situation though.

"What's on your mind?" the other man asked.

"Something doesn't add up, Matt. No doubt the soon to be demoted Finnian screwed the pooch with his play dates. But it shouldn't have come to that in the first place."

"You mean that ceremony thing they did?"

"Yeah. We were assured, promised that only our men would be permitted into the room. The attackers got in like we left the door open, which, actually, we did."

"Maybe they did it wrong." Westfall suggested.

"No." Hulme shook his head. "Marcus Stone doesn't make mistakes like that. I was here when we sealed this place up. He wouldn't leave things like this to chance. That's not the only problem I have though."

"What else?"

"How did they know where to find this guy?" Hulme asked as he picked up a chunk of ice and tossed it over the side of the well. "They knew where to go, knew how to get past the seal but didn't know what they were looking for. Hell, it sounds like they had no idea what to expect when they got here. Some of it could have been dumb luck but these three were looking for _something_. Maybe they didn't know what but when they found our friend they broke him out in a hurry."

"And they left Ryan and Zoller alive. Anyone with our business acumen would have executed them."

"Too many questions and not enough answers. Typical."

"What's our next move?" Westfall asked.

"I want those three tracked as far as possible. If we can locate them maybe we can find out what they're doing here. But if you find them capture them gently. I want a chance to talk to them before I turn them over to Stone."

"Why?"

"If they know a way in and out of the town maybe we can strike a deal."

"Commander...that's..."

"I know what it is, Matt. Right now I'm willing to consider all options." Hulme said. "Make no mistake, our backs are against the wall. If Stone isn't going to let us go then we need to be prepared to find a way out of this hell hole by any means necessary."

* * *

Dragging a corpse along in general wasn't fun but it was even more so when having to do so in a dark sewer in a hostile ghost town. Chuck trudged along with his surprisingly light but increasingly heavy friend and hurried as best he could behind Victor's bulky frame. The knight's head light and Julia's flashlight lit up the grimy sewer but having a decent amount of vision didn't stop him from stepping in things he had to hope were mere human waste.

Finding a manhole and spending an eternity getting it open Victor slid the heavy cover out of the way and let light pour into the dingy sewer. Throwing the triangle sword ahead he followed it out of the dark tunnel and not a moment too soon. From farther back in the darkness Chuck heard the inhuman, shrill wail from far in the distance of something he never wanted to meet.

"Looks like we got here just in time." Victor commented as he helped Julia up the short ladder to the street surface.

"What the hell was that?"

"We should probably just get out of their way." the knight said and Chuck's face frowned as hard as humanly possible.

"They...?"

"Nevermind. Hand me the body." he said and Chuck took a breath before hoisting what was left of the Dark Man upwards. Scrambling up the ladder when the corpse was out of the way he quickly replaced the cover and shuddered to think of what they had just avoided. The town had reverted back to its misty, daylight appearance sometime while they were in the basement and Chuck was glad for it. The eternally dark, rusted version of the town was infinitely more menacing and had haunted him for two long years. Chuck didn't recognize his surroundings but that wasn't particularly unusual and according to Julia her man knew the area better than anyone alive.

"We gotta make ourselves scarce." Julia suggested.

"Agreed. Bring him, let's get into that gas station." Victor ordered. Holding his breath about how he didn't recall signing up to take commands Chuck nevertheless hefted the still cold body onto his back. Carrying it some forty more feet to the long since abandoned structure Victor went in first with a shotgun armed Julia close behind. While he might have been somewhat brusque one could not say that the knight didn't have a pair of brass ones.

Finding it empty Chuck dragged the body into the building and laid it down on the floor. Closing and locking the door Victor stared out of it a couple of moments before returning to them. Tired muscles gratefully relieved themselves of their burden and the killer looked around the room. Half ransacked for supplies the orderly rows of food and random products were still more or less as they were almost twenty years ago. By now none of it would we good to eat but they would have to look through the place for anything they could use.

Standing around the body the three of them rested and looked down on the reason that they were all these. Reflecting on what had led them here Chuck said out loud, "Well, that sucked."

"Putting it lightly." the woman of the group said.

"We're alive and we got what we came for." Victor shrugged. Leaning the strange triangle handled sword against the aisle he took off his helmet and set it down on a row of moldy cereal boxes.

"Only because those guys were screwing around. What if we had walked into a room full of them with rifles waiting?" the pilgrim scoffed.

"Yeah. Guys in combat armor and guns I didn't sign up for." Chuck agreed.

"The two of you worry too much. Everything worked out. Why continue to dwell on it?"

"Well...I don't know, it was just stressful, man." the killer said.

"Mmm. You'll get used to it."

"What are we going to do with Sleeping Beauty?" Julia asked and prodded the body with her foot.

"That's a good question, actually." the knight mused. "How do you revive someone who was already dead before you ever met him?"

"Wait, what?" Chuck asked. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You didn't know?" Victor asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well...I mean I knew he was...I don't know...magical? I guess? The only way I could think to describe him. I just thought it was part of the Silent Hill weirdness."

"Oh, it is, it is." Victor said with unsettling calm. "Let me tell you about your old friend. I'll assume you know about the Order? The people trying to kill us?"

"Uh..."

"Ugh. I keep forgetting you merely found your way here." Victor said irritably. "They are the ones behind all of this. I don't know how but I'm positive they had a hand in turning Silent Hill into what it is now. They've been active for hundreds of years in one form or the other. But what concerns you is your...dark benefactor. He was one of them."

"He was a...cultist?"

"Oh yes. In fact he was once their greatest practitioner of the arcane, a title he still refers to himself as: the Fater."

A suppressed memory came to the surface and Chuck remembered when he first came to Silent Hill. The angry, vengeful half of himself that manifested in his 'Troy' personality had asked the town for help. It was not the mists but the Dark Man who had answered his twisted prayer. Chuck remembered now that the knife wielding phantom had indeed referred to himself as 'Nothing, the Fater'.

"What happened to him?" Julia asked and was paying just as rapt attention as Chuck was.

"Well, I only have the story I was told. The Fater was given access to all of the Order's ceremonies and spells. There was an obscure and old ritual that even they deemed too dangerous he was able to exploit. Somewhere, somehow he elevated himself past mortal limits. He isn't a man anymore in the true sense of the word...more of a shade, an essence still clinging to this world after it should have departed."

"But that guy's real. He's got a body and everything." Julia argued.

"Maybe so but that's not flesh and bone you're looking at. There's no organism, no beating heart in that body. He's no more human than the things that crawl in the mists." Victor explained.

All of this was news to Chuck but he wasn't exactly sure how to take it. He had been the direct beneficiary of the Dark Man's supernatural powers on many occasions. Most of his journey through Silent Hill the first time was only possible and didn't kill him because of the influence and protection given by Nothing. Yet in all the time he knew the ghost man he never could figure out what he wanted in return.

As the killer contemplated the oddity that was his only friend in the world Julia scratched her head. "Well that still leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions. Mostly no one's come up with a good way to get popsicle here to start talking and explain what's going on."

"They killed him once, didn't they?" Chuck asked. "Or at least got him close enough to trap him. I mean, how else do you kill someone whose already dead?"

"You freeze them in an ice cube with a sword in their chest and drop them down a well?" Julia threw out.

"In a well lit room..." Victor breathed like he had just stumbled onto something important.

"What is it Vic?"

"We found him in a room, in a whole section of a building lit up brighter than day time. Locked in ice, surrounded by water with machines pumping cold air in." he spoke rapidly. "What does that mean to you?"

"Uh...they wanted to be able to see in large refrigerator?"

"No no, think about it more symbolically." he insisted. "He was already defeated before they put him in there. The writing on the walls was specifically made to keep him in."

"A prison." Julia concluded. "A prison...of lights and cold?"

"Exactly." the knight nodded. "It wasn't just the sword, the well or the lights. It was all of them combined together that kept him trapped. They knew he wasn't able to be killed by conventional methods or maybe they just didn't have the right tools. So they did the next best thing and put him in a deep, brightly lit hole he'd never be able to fight his way out of."

"You know what, that's gone up my flagpole Victor, I'm saluting that one." Chuck said. "That makes total sense."

"Wait, it does?" Julia asked quizzically.

"When we found him he was surrounded by so many lights you had to squint to see. Hell, they built them into his ice cube. I might not have spent a lot of time talking to him but he seemed like a guy that preferred to be in the dark. Ditto for the cold. Maybe they knew that he wouldn't be able to use his freaky powers if they set it up just right."

"We should attempt to counter act the Order's steps to contain him. Provide the opposite of what they did."

"Darkness and heat?" Chuck asked.

"How would we even do that?" Julia wondered aloud. "What are we going to do, stick him in an oven?"

Both men looked up at each other and then to Julia. "What?" she glanced back and forth quickly between them.

"That's genius!" Victor exclaimed.

"It is? I mean, huh, yeah, I meant to do that." Julia said and curled her fingers arrogantly to pretend she was inspecting her nails. "You're welcome."

"You really think it'll work?" Chuck worried.

"What are we going to do, kill him a third time? There's an old bakery a couple of streets over, with any luck the oven will still be in working order. Let's find one large enough to throw him in." Victor said.

"And what if we're wrong?"

"Then at least he was cremated." Victor shrugged. "More than most get in Silent Hill."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: A Burning

Heading back into the mists Julia had no desire to be out in the open with who knows how many people looking for them. It was clear the mercenaries had strength in numbers and they'd been exceedingly lucky to have caught them unaware. The pessimistic pilgrim was under the impression that it was not going to happen again.

Clutching the large shotgun as they navigated through the streets at least made her feel slightly better. She'd fired the 9mm rounds many times at the shooting range and was glad to have such a large stock of them but it was not her first choice. Even though it felt at first like the gun was going to recoil so hard it would hit her in the face she liked the impressive force of the larger .45 round. Determined to save them for when she knew danger was coming she had felt a little underpowered bringing the smaller caliber. With the shotgun in her hands that was a worry of the past. She'd only fired one a few times at the range and it usually gave her shoulder bruises but the tattered targets left behind attested to the lethal force it was capable of.

She could tell Victor was tense by his abnormally hurried movements but they reached the store front a handful of blocks away unchallenged. The glass windows spelled out 'Old Thyme Silent Hill Baking Company' with pleasing script. Victor ushered them inside but Julia still had to admire the tiny door and craftsmanship of the wrought iron handle. Inside the shop was more spacious than it seemed and the glass let enough light in to see well. To the left was the counter and baking area while tiny, perfect little chairs and tables were set out for customers.

"Oh my god, this place is so cute!" she gushed.

"Jesus woman, focus." Chuck bristled. "We're kind of in danger still."

"We're always in danger here. Vic?" she tugged on her man's arm. "Can we open a bakery when we get home?"

"Yes, yes." Victor dismissed like she was a nagging child while he scanned the room. "Over there." he pointed across the room to the oven which still had traces of flour around it.

"Ugh." Chuck grunted as he lugged the body of his good buddy towards the old machine. Poking at the door of the long oven Victor found a short lever that he had to force down. The metal grated in protest at being woken from its sleep but opened to a flat baking tray some four feet long. Set in the the wall at almost shoulder level the full size of the apparatus had to be quite large on the inside.

"Jackpot." Julia said and rubbed her hands together. "Let's load him up and get the off the streets."

"Kind of a small fit." Victor said disapprovingly.

"Better shove." Chuck suggested. Together the two of them hefted the corpse into the oven and did have to manhandle limbs into place. The straight jacket wearing body was mostly contained when Victor reached for the very simple control buttons. There was a green one and a red one; hopefully they couldn't screw that up.

"Here goes nothing." Victor said and depressed the button. The oven remained inert as if laughing at their attempts to use it.

"Well you were right about the nothing part." Julia said with just a touch smugly.

"Feck." Chuck blurted.

"Anyone know how to fix ovens?" Victor threw out.

"We could try sticking a fork in it." Julia suggested. "Oh wait, that's a toaster."

"Maybe you have to like, close it first?" Canada offered.

Furrowing his brow Victor cranked the lever upwards and shut the sliding door before pressing the button again. Incredibly the old oven sputtered to life and it could be heard heating up at the very bottom. "Huh. Whaddaya know." the pilgrim blinked.

"Looks like we've got a bun in the oven." Chuck said.

Drawing in a breath through her nose Julia stared at him with as much hate as she possibly could. "What?" he asked.

"You seriously aren't doing this on purpose are you?" she shook her head. "Canucks."

"Maple syrup and hockey. Deal with it."

"How long do you think it will take to get him back to normal?" she changed the subject.

"You're asking for definite answers to something we made up on the spot." Victor reminded her. "I wouldn't be very surprised to see nothing but a smoking body when we open this thing again."

Chuck took a seat on the grimy floor and Julia was actually surprised she hadn't thought of doing that earlier. Resting the shotgun by him she leaned against the baking table across from the even. Reluctantly Victor joined them though she suspected that he only did so to remain out of view.

"Anyone else hungry? I'm dying of starvation over here." the Canadian said. "Feels like I haven't eaten in forever."

"We ate before we came to town." Julia recalled.

"That was days ago."

"Feels that way, but it really hasn't been."

"I'm going to dive right into one of those MREs. They look delicious." he said with a gleam in his eye.

"I'm positive they're gross."

"Yeah well try eating hospital food for two years." he grumbled.

They sat listening to the oven warming up and Julia's mind wandered to food as well. This bakery probably churned out dozens of warm bread based products hourly when it was in working order. Though this was her third trip to Silent Hill in as many years she still did not feel like she had really seen the town. So much was shrouded in mist and fear to appreciate what it must have looked like before.

"Vic?"

"Yes?"

"Do you remember much of the town before you moved away?"

"The memories are very hazy." he admitted which was strange as he had a superlative gift for mental recording. "I remember bits and pieces. We had an apartment with a green lawn out front with a fence I remember I wasn't big enough to see over."

"Did it have a lobby?"

"Did what have a lobby?"

"Your old apartment."

"Yeah, why?"

She smiled and put her arm around his shoulder. "The room with all the runes over it, the one you brought me to originally and where we came when we first arrived. That was your where you lived when you were a kid wasn't it?"

He dipped his head down which meant she was right. "You don't have to explain." she said. Pulling off his helmet she dropped it in his gloved hands and kissed him on the cheek.

"A couple had been living there." he affirmed after a few moments of silence. "I was fifteen. I didn't know where else to go. It took me months to find the place and that was after I'd learned to dodge the things in the mist."

Distantly he continued, "We moved away in...1982 I think is what my mom told me. They had a few years to settle in. It didn't feel right staying anywhere else but there were a lot of their personal things I had to move out to feel comfortable."

"Like what?" Chuck asked.

"Photos, chew toys, legal documents, clothing."

"What did you do with it all?"

"What could I do?" he shrugged. "I put all of their things in boxes and moved them next door."

Julia always found it fascinating to go through other people's belongings especially when she knew they wouldn't find out about it. In this case though her curiosity was tempered by the fact that possessions now belonged to dead people.

"The couple that lived there, do you think they could still be alive somewhere?" she asked.

"I've thought of that often." Victor said. "All my years here and I've never gotten any closer to finding out. They could still be alive if they've managed to survive these last 18 years. I hope they did."

They sat quietly a few minutes as the oven began to give off a noticeable trace of heat. "I'm sorry, we got side tracked. Was there anything else you remembered about Silent Hill before the...accident?" she repeated.

"Oh, yes. I remember that it was sunny a lot but the weather changed constantly from day to day. Clear and blue one day then gusty and gray the next. We went to the lake a lot in the summer." he showed a rare, wry half grin. "Can't imagine I'd want to go swimming in Lake Toluca these days."

"Heh. Were there a lot of people?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah. Lots of other kids at the lake. Must have been a nice place to live."

"Can we undo it?" Chuck spoke up.

"Undo the town?"

"Yeah. I mean, there's got to be a way right? Someone made all of this happen in the first place. There has to be a way to...shut it off."

"You're talking about things beyond even my ken." Victor said. "Whatever happened was no mere conjuration gone awry. It took powerful, possibly godly force to enact this kind of change. I wouldn't even know where to start."

"What do you mean, godly?" Julia asked.

"This place has been a spiritual haven centuries before the first Viking ever set sail for the New World. I suspect there was a good reason it was called 'the place of silent spirits' before colonists arrived."

"Do you believe in spirits?" Chuck pried.

"I believe in what's real, Chuck." Victor said with a surprising lack of disdain. "Before coming back here I would have said no. Having seen what I've seen and spending years working runes...well, something lives here that doesn't live anywhere else which is not a part of Christian mythology."

The oven thudded inside and the sound made Julia jump. Looking at each other the three of them scrambled up to investigate. Hitting the red button to stop the oven Victor dropped the sliding door. The heat blasted them in the face and to Julia's shock they found the oven completely empty. In place of the the body were a number of swirling, oddly curved runes made from ash.

"It...worked?" Julia said tentatively.

"I guess?"

Victor was staring intently at the symbols and clicked on his head light to get a better look at them. The corpse – the man – had traced them with his fingers it looked like. "This...is very strange."

"We pulled a dead guy out of an ice cube and threw him into an oven. I'd say strange is an understatement." she observed.

"No, I mean these. These are...glyphs like the Order's but...they're all wrong. You're supposed to make them straight as an arrow, perfect circles and lines or they lose their power. None of what's here should function at all yet obviously he did something right."

"Can we assume it we did it then?" Julia asked.

"I suppose. If something went wrong I'm sure we'll run into his body again somewhere."

"And if it didn't?"

"We're going to find a lot of bodies." Victor promised grimly. "And I've got a feeling if there's any of those soldiers left around the holding chamber they're going to be dead soon. Come on. Let's get out of here and back to the store room. We'll see if we can get into contact with Nothing when we're safe."

* * *

"-we followed them into the sewers as best we could but we were set on by a pack of...creatures. One of my men sustained additional injuries as we fought past them but by then the hostiles were long gone. As best we could tell they had no foreknowledge of the primary target but they did know where to look. I can only assume there was a leak of information at this point."

Hulme concluded his report and put his hands behind him. He didn't like being the bearer of bad news but he was ultimately responsible for everything that happened within his jurisdiction. Sitting across from his desk Marcus Stone had demanded to see the commander in person after news of the incident had been relayed to him. While the bony man always had a far away look on his face this time there was an undercurrent of deadly, cold rage in his voice.

"You have failed us, Commander." he said and a chill went up Hulme's spine with how angry his employer was without showing the slightest bit of fire.

"We have." Hulme agreed. "However there are elements of this attack I find very off putting. The lack of the security of information for example. Who among your people could have leaked the holding cell's whereabouts? Not only that but I was promised that the men posted there would be sufficient with your own protection in place. Had I been aware it was going to fail I would have assigned a much more robust guard."

"And your men are sure they broke in?"

"Positive. Your liaison confirmed that the seal thing wasn't operating when he came by. We certainly didn't touch it."

"I know that, Commander. Your men are too incompetent to properly attack that which they do not understand." Stone answered absently. The mercenary officer kept his cool as Stone stared off into space.

"You have no idea what you've done." he said finally. "I cannot estimate how long it was take him to recover but he _will_ recover. Not only that but the intruders took the one thing we needed to make sure he wouldn't rise again. It is you and your men who are going to suffer the most. He will not look kindly on you for helping cage him."

"Are you talking about the guy in the cube?" Hulme asked in confusion.

"I am. The holding cell was for your protection as much as ours, Commander. Now that the Fater is loose our options have narrowed significantly."

"You telling me the dead guy is going to attack us?"

"I don't have to tell you. You're going to see for yourself when he begins slaughtering your men and ripping their hearts from their chests." Stone said without a trace of emotion.

Putting aside the illogical nature of the conversation Hulme asked, "Well how are we going to stop him then?"

"You need to find those intruders and quickly. Make them talk. Find out what they know and how they managed to breach the door. It should have been impregnable, we made sure of it. If they can tell us what he's planning we may be able to salvage this situation."

"We'll start combing the south end. Door to door if we have to." Hulme promised.

"Good. Now, my aide told me your men got a good look at them. One was in a suit of armor, tell me about that."

"Oh, right. He was dressed head to toe in this greenish medieval looking get up complete with sword and shield. It reminded me of one of our first assignments here where we raided an empty apartment. I believe you took custody of a similar suit of armor at that time."

Mental machinery churned behind Stone's eyes and it did not escape Hulme's notice. "You know something." he said plainly.

"Yes." the smaller man said distantly. "Only two we have trained ever manged to successfully elude us. The first was our erstwhile guest. The second I assumed had done the smart thing and disappeared. It is possible there was a collusion I did not foresee taking place."

"You know who it is?"

"That he would return to the misty land unbidden and in service of his senior I did not expect. It would seem that pieces have fit together." Stone said mysteriously. "He shouldn't have been able to live so long without us but it would appear he has done more than just survive."

"Any idea on where he'll be?" Hulme asked.

"He's too sharp for that Commander. Your adversary is as dangerous as a human can be here. Together with a fully powered Fater he will be a most serious problem."

"No enemy is completely invulnerable." the commander said confidently.

"Yes. Outside his dream the Fater is reasonably mortal and even now is too weak to risk assaulting us. We have time before his lethality increases to insurmountable. In that time we must kill or capture the three who attacked your men."

"Assuming we can find them."

"I know where he will come next." Stone breathed. "He's going to our old locations. That's how he found the Fater in the first place. He will be drawn inexorably to the Rissen building here on this side of the lake. The bridge will be the only way across."

"Sounds like the perfect place for an ambush."

"We will assist you, Commander. It is imperative that they are taken out of the equation one way or the other. Just be sure your men do nothing rash. It will not be easy for anyone."

"They're ready." Hulme promised. "We don't take kindly to being shot at."

"Good. Let us properly welcome our new friends."

* * *

The cold stone absorbed the pounding rain as it had done since it was created. The downpour never abated but only occasionally grew in ferocity from time to time. The steady assault on the weather beaten rock was interrupted by frequent lightning which was the only source of illumination to cut through the overwhelming darkness and storms.

On the highest balcony of the highest tower in existence a prone figure curled up on the black rock. Unmoving and unconcerned by the ferocious elements it merely existed out in the open.

"_Master._" came the voiceless voice. "_You have returned._" The still body did not move or respond but merely continued to be pummeled by the rain

"_You are badly injured._" the voice continued. "_The dissonance problem also has not been resolved._"

When no reply was forthcoming the voice went on, "_All else is in order. Aside from the breaches on floors two through four I am secure. Light collection activities are ready for the upcoming solar flare. I faithfully await further instructions._"

Lightning struck nearby and ear splitting thunder rattled the wet stones. It was gone as soon as it appeared and the heavy patter of rain continued ceaselessly.

* * *

The house was made of charred wood that could not have possibly supported any weight whatsoever. He fled through it as he was being chased by a nameless horror that he did not see but knew was chasing him regardless. No matter how many doors he flung open or stairs he ran down it followed behind him with heavy, thudding footsteps. He had the vague impression that it was gaining on him even with his breakneck pace. Somewhere behind him it crashed through the charcoal structure like a battering ram splintering cheap plywood.

He called out to his mother, a couple of deities, the police, anyone that would help him. No one and nothing came to his aid and finally the beast cornered him in a basement which was not in the scorched building he was just running through by somewhere nearby, maybe still in town.

Turning around fearfully to see what evil had been chasing him he saw _her_. She was laughing hysterically and came at him with a dozen knives in her arms with had been changed to a writhing mass of slimy tentacles. He listened to her laughter as his blood spattered against the wall.

* * *

Waking in a cold sweat Chuck had to take the better part of a minute to orient himself to his surroundings. He wasn't in a burned building, he wasn't being chased and he wasn't being stabbed to death by his ex-girlfriend. It took quite some time as he stared at the plain white ceiling of the apartment they were staying in for him to let the trauma pass. Normally he didn't dream; required to take powerful soporifics and usually anti-psychotics as well his dreams were mercifully rare. Off the drugs he was more alert, thought more clearly and didn't fall asleep as easily. He was glad to be fully himself but at the same time he missed the comfort of the numbness. He had a lot of time to dwell in his own head which never went well.

He had taken one of the bedrooms to himself and the room was scarcely larger than the bed itself. It was strange at first climbing into someone else's bed but he reminded himself that the person who owned it was likely long dead. They certainly had no need of their worldly possessions anymore but he said a quick mental sorry to whoever was listening for using their things.

The windows were dark and he assumed that it was still night or early morning. Pulling on his pants the killer shuffled out to the living room and was surprised to find Victor sitting on the couch. He was reading a book though Chuck had no idea where he found it. It was going to be awkward being around the other man without Julia acting as a buffer though he supposed it couldn't be helped. Taking a seat on the other end of the three section couch he nodded when Victor looked over.

"Can't sleep either?" he asked.

"I never sleep long." Victor answered without looking up from his book.

"Do you have a condition?" Chuck asked as he'd become fond of attempting to diagnose his fellow crazies.

"Yes. Used to live here." he answered curtly.

"Nightmares?"

Victor turned the page of the book with amazing displeasure for such a simple act. "After three years I gradually began to sleep less and less until I stopped altogether." he explained. "Same thing with food."

"Wouldn't you...die?"

"Normally, yes. But as you well know, sometimes the rules do not apply to the misty land like they're supposed to."

"Will that happen to me too?"

Victor finally looked up at him to raise an eyebrow. "Are you planning on staying here for the rest of your life?"

Chuck hadn't honestly thought about it but now that he did it didn't seem like too bad of an idea. "Maybe I should." he shrugged. "No place for me back in the real world. I'd just be going to the hospital again. If I stay here maybe I can help people that I run into. Give them a place to stay."

Victor snorted like the idea was preposterous and returned to his book. Not having anything else to say Chuck got up to visit their equipment room. Stacked almost over his head was a perfectly square tower of MREs which were good for another four years apparently. Selecting a box of cheese tortellini from the top he busied himself with getting it heated. Opening the thin box he unfolded the pouches inside and dropped the food pouch into the heating bag. Heading to the kitchen he filled up the heating bag with just enough water to begin the chemical reaction. Replacing the quickly warming pouches back into the box he set it upright on the counter and let it cook. The meals were ingeniously designed and with the last two years of dining at the hospital mess he thought they were the tastiest thing he'd eaten in years. Likely due to their fancy city food both Julia and Victor found them revolting.

Plopping himself back on the couch Chuck stared at the ceiling while Victor continued to pretend he didn't exist. The other man might not have liked or trusted him but they were allies if reluctantly. The bag boiled for a several minutes while Chuck wracked his brain for something to say. Thinking back on his time in Silent Hill he remembered that he had a question never answered before.

"Can I ask you something?" he looked over to Victor.

"Ask."

"Do you remember meeting me in Brookhaven?"

"Like it was yesterday." the knight answered indifferently.

"When I met you, you were talking to the Dark Man. You were bartering for something and then gave him a letter, then ran off. Never found out what that was all about."

Victor sighed and actually put down his book. Putting his hands together in a steeple on his lap he looked up as he thought. "I'd been following Julia." he admitted rather easily. "I first encountered her when she ran screaming out of a building. I made a promise to myself not to get involved with the people that wandered into Silent Hill but...well she looked so alone."

"Huh. And her being pretty had nothing to do with it."

"It didn't." he said defensively.

"Not really sure that's true but keep going." Chuck said and privately assumed he was dead on.

"I trailed behind her to make sure she didn't run into anything she couldn't handle. I helped her fight some creatures off and showed her to my apartment to give her aid like you wish to do. Sent her on her way again but in secret I followed her still."

"Hmm. That's kind of stalker-ish."

"It had been years since I had human contact. I might have been lonely but I certainly didn't want to find her corpse somewhere or worse, her corpse stumbling around attacking other people. When she went into Brookhaven I knew things were going to get out of hand. I lost track of her when the darkness took over."

"Yeah, I remember. That's what got me out of the cell I'd been locked in."

"I panicked. I didn't know where she was and who knows what was lurking in the dark. I did the only thing I could and summoned Nothing."

"Ah." Chuck said. "That makes sense now. I'm sure he showed up pretty fast, huh?"

"Yes...?" Victor furrowed his brow. "How did you know that?"

"He was already there, trying to convince me that I should just leave the town. I didn't listen." Chuck said wistfully.

"Huh. That explains a bit."

"What was it you gave him?"

"A book page." Victor recalled. "When the darkness takes over sometimes the letters in books change. Don't ask me why, it just happens like that. Most of the time it's gibberish but rarely there's powerful magic to be found. They revert back to regular books when the nightmare leaves but change just as surely back when it comes."

"Oh wow." Chuck blinked. "I had no idea...wait, does that mean those guys took all your special books from your apartment?"

"No." the knight shook his head. "Each one with useful magic I took with me when I left Silent Hill. They are safe in a locked chest in Julia's condo. The Order took only useless, normal ones. To have left them unguarded would be to ask to have them fall into the wrong hands."

"Like the Dark Man?"

"Or the Order. Anyone who would misuse them."

"But you traded a page anyway?"

"I did." the other man said. "It was a simple sacrifice ceremony that I had committed to memory. When I was done copying it he informed me that he wanted the original, too. It was a last second request and we were arguing about it when you showed up."

"Yeah, remember that now. Why did you want to know my name?"

"There's power in knowing someone's true name." he said. "You would do well to guard yours in this place."

"Oh. Weird. Does that mean the Dark Man...?"

"No. No one knows his name." Victor said. "When he worked with the Order he was clever enough to use a fake one from the start. I don't know how he managed to swindle them or even why. It was clear though that he joined them with malice aforethought. Not even the Ordermaster could have predicted what he was going to do."

They were silent a few moments while Chuck thought on his strange friend. "Never could figure that guy out." he spoke up. "Why he does what he does I mean. Why did he help me in the first place? Why go through the trouble? I'd have been dead a dozen times over if it weren't for him. He's never asked for anything in return."

"I know what you mean. When we first met he was bent on killing me but suddenly spared me. He's never asked for anything in return for it until now. I can't believe he did that all those years ago just to have a favor to call in now."

"In a weird way that kind of sounds like something he would do though."

"I suppose. However I doubt he planned to be put into an ice cube."

"Or thrown into an oven."

His own oven comment reminded him that he had food going and he returned to the kitchen to retrieve a now steaming bag of tortellini. Eating straight out of the pouch he sat down on the couch and sighed.

"Don't suppose we're going to get too many moments like this." he said thoughtfully.

"Like what?"

"Sitting on the couch, relaxing, enjoying a hot meal. Won't be long before everything goes to hell."

"It already has." Victor said as he turned a page. "It will be morning in a few hours. Enjoy the peace while it lasts because where we're going there won't be any left."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Like Rats

After Julia woke and choked down one of the MREs that Charles Taylor seemed to love they quietly discussed their plans. It was a relatively pointless conversation; there was only one place they could possibly go next. Nothing had yet to contact them and there was little reason to suspect that he would be much help. Victor wasn't sure if it was possible to kill the Fater anymore but the Order had done a superb job of reducing him to near death. If they hadn't found him down in that endless well it was conceivable that the straight jacketed demon would have never made it out on his own.

The Rissen building was their target and it was, the last the knight knew, the center of Order operations in Silent Hill. Because of Nothing they would not dare set up a permanent presence in the city anywhere near their old haunts but with him on ice it was possible they had fallen back into old habits. At the very least there would be documents, old runes, some kind of trail to follow. The only problem was that if there were more of the mercenaries the three of them were likely to be in a fire fight. This was something that Victor desperately wanted to avoid, more so than any encounter with the ghost town's nightmare fauna.

Just past what should have been noon they started to get ready for the excursion. While Julia and Chuck packed extra bullets Victor pulled on the masterfully crafted suit of armor. He did not mention to either of them just how well made it was or how perfectly it fit him. The first time he pulled on the gauntlets and his fingers lined up with the little gripping pads at the tip of each digit he knew that it had been made specifically for him alone. It was obvious that Nothing had set up this room long ago and stocked it for not just him but Julia and Chuck too. For all his might and reality altering powers no Fater had ever claimed to be able to see the future.

Pulling on the well molded helmet Victor couldn't help but think that somehow Nothing had obtained his exact measurements in a disturbingly intimate way, perhaps as he slept. Flexing his fingers in the gauntlets Victor checked his sword strap and slid his arm into his shield. There was a little scuff mark on it where the shield had deflected a bullet; he sincerely hoped that the rest of the greenish metal had the same kind of properties as his full body protector. Julia and Chuck joined him near the front of the apartment door and were both loaded to the gills with weaponry. If push came to shove at least they wouldn't be running out of ammo any time soon.

"I don't think you have enough clips." Chuck commented on Julia's full bag of pre-loaded 9mm cases.

"No idea what we'll run into. Last thing we want is to run out." she reasoned.

"How serious is this?" Chuck asked. "Should I bring that grenade belt?"

"Couldn't hurt to take a couple. Never know what we're going to run into with mercenaries on the loose." Victor answered. "We ready?" he asked them.

"Don't suppose we have much of a choice, do we?" the woman asked.

"No, not really." Victor answered while Chuck stuffed a couple of the dangerous grenades into his vest. The knight would have preferred Julia take care of the explosives but he held his objection for the moment.

"Let's get this over with then. I'm missing all kinds of day time TV for this crap."

Soon they were back out on the misty streets heading north towards the other side of town. Victor never liked heading over to that part of town partly because of the proximity to the Order's old stomping grounds and partly because the bridge was tactically horrid. The natural choke point at either end was bad enough but it was being out on the center of the water that made him nervous. There were few things in the town he could not deal with or run from if need be but the last thing he wanted to do was willingly get into the dark waters that roiled underneath the lone bridge.

It was not long before the sound of Lake Toluca reached his ears and he steeled himself for the task ahead. The gentle lapping of the distant water was more ominous than than soothing and the rest of the town was oppressively quiet. Even their muffled steps echoed like fog horns and Victor was uneasy as they drew closer to the bridge. It was bigger than he remembered when it came reluctantly out of the mist that shrouded it and seemed somehow even more run down. The control booth, a sad little structure that looked ready to fall over a decade ago, still managed to stand after all these years. Other than the stalled car right of the booth everything looked the same since he last saw it.

Approaching the bridge cautiously from the left the knight slowed to almost a crawl while they edged forward. Victor's sharp eye caught a flicker of motion by the car ahead and he set his shield down on the ground to crouch behind with only his head exposed. The other two dropped down behind him and he could hear Julia's quickened breathing just behind his ear.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"Not sure. Thought I saw someth-"

Several figures popped up from behind the car and unloaded automatic fire in their direction. Ducking his head underneath the giant shield Victor screamed, "DOWN!" to his companions and held onto the metal circle for dear life. Lined up behind his bulky body and bulletproof shield he hoped the other two would be all right as the silence was shattered by the cacophony of machine gun rattling and muzzle flashes. Killing rounds thudded into the shield with the force of sledgehammers but Victor did not falter. Thankfully the soldiers were too far away to plant all of their rounds on him or it might have been a different story.

Julia's hand rested on his shoulder and entirely too close to his head she returned fire with the _bang-bang-bang!_ of her 9mm. Victor could barely hear when her clip clicked empty and she yelled in his ear, "Run! Run!"

Not having time to argue Victor picked himself up and turned as Julia dropped her gun and pulled a fresh one. Firing wildly towards the bridge she covered their exit as all three bolted the opposite direction. From either side of them more muzzle flashes cut through the mist and Victor could hear the angry bullets tearing through the air overhead. The other shooters were too far to even see them but they didn't need to when creating a kill zone that unfortunately the knight and his companions had walked right into.

Time slowed and ahead of him was the relative safety of a slim alley between building. The ground stretched out forever before him as he saw Chuck ahead of them almost to the mouth of the alley. If it was a dead end they were likely doomed but it was better than being shot at from nearly every direction. Victor never sprinted so fast in his life and he felt bits of asphalt pepper his legs as the random shots of the mercenaries came too close for comfort.

A few steps ahead of them Chuck skidded to a halt just past the corner of the alley and pointed his pistol past them. Victor's heart leapt into his throat when he thought the killer was finally going to betray them. When he opened fire though it was off to the side and at their attackers to cover both Victor's and Julia's last stretch to the alley. Practically long-jumping to temporary safety in his armored suit the knight scrambled to his feet to reassess the situation. Looking around frantically he saw that they had incredibly made it to the alley unharmed.

"Keep going! Keep going!" Julia drove them on and without any more hesitation Victor plunged headlong into the alley. The air behind them continued to be pepper with rifle fire and like terrified animals they fled from the sound. Dark, twisting and covered with grime the alley was their only escape route and the green armored knight could only pray that it had an exit. Rushing around one corner after the other they almost had a pile up when Victor stopped short of the disastrous end of the alley. It came to a windowless, doorless backside of a building with only a small gap that a rat would have a hard time squeezing through.

"Fuck! Fuck! We are royally, viciously fucked!" Chuck wailed.

"We're not going down without a fight." Julia promised grimly and dropped a magazine to the ground. Slamming another one in she cocked her pistol and pointed it at the ground in the direction of the alley's exit. "Get behind Vic and use him for cover. We're only going to get one chance at this."

Sullenly holstering his pistol Chuck rolled his head around on his shoulders and detached his shotgun from the shoulder sling he had it in. Taking up a position near the alley's last corner Victor drew his gleaming sword and resigned himself to waiting for the mercenaries to come for them. Lining up behind him the Canadian peeking around the knight and kept the shotgun pointed away until it was time to use it.

"Uh...guys..." Julia said from behind them. Victor turned to see her puzzled face looked down at the ground. Following her line of sight he then saw the massive, ten foot rune etched into the ground under their feet. Involuntarily sucking in a breath the knight quickly determined the purpose of the rune and his hopes for making it out of the alley in one piece were dashed against the rocks.

"Uh oh..." he breathed.

"'Uh oh'? Did you just say uh oh?" Chuck asked hysterically.

"What exactly does this thing do?" Julia demanded while Victor tried to wrap his head around the implications of the lines and symbols under his feet.

"I...don't quite know how to put this. We're standing on a giant bull's eye." he tried to explain.

"Uh...what?"

"Bull's eye for what?" Chuck wanted to know.

"We're about to have a whole lot of new friends. A river of them if I'm reading this correctly. Damn it, they set this whole thing up." Victor shook his head. "They knew we'd be heading for the Rissen house. Why didn't I think of this."

"Um, hello? I still don't understand what's going on." Julia said.

"Stand there." Victor pointed with his sword towards the other side of the alley. "When you see them, start shooting and don't stop."

"See what?"

The ground began to tremble ever so slightly and Victor braced himself for what was coming. The sound of a dozen, two dozen, a dozen dozen feet trampling on the ground reached his ears and he could see it dawn on his allies what was about to happen to them. They'd been out maneuvered, out positioned, out gunned and now about to be seriously outnumbered by the Order and their cronies.

Like an evil tide the alley was soon filled with a sea of faceless, slime-slick Silent Hill mannequin monsters. Their off-white, dirty bodies formed a stampede of flailing limbs designed to swallow up the three humans staring death in the face. Chuck's shotgun roared out next to him and there was an explosion of gore as the killer began lighting up the incoming mannequins with every trigger pull. Julia's gun was by comparison a slight popping sound which opened mortal wounds in the front ranks of charging monsters. They fell down, dead or close to it, but the herd stomped over their own kind without pause.

Chuck cursed next to him as he quickly ran out of ammo and there was nothing for Victor to do but charge ahead to meet them head on. If the monsters backed them to the wall of the dead end the alley would become a mass grave in short order. Putting his shoulder behind the shield the knight rammed into the oncoming mannequins hard enough to shatter bone. Crunching into the writhing mass of arms and legs attached where arms should have been he was stopped cold by the sheer momentum of the monsters. Leaning forward with all of his weight against the shield Victor stabbed over the top of the shield as a row of arms and legs tried to beat down on his head.

Julia's gun sounded like a typewriter with only the briefest of pauses in between her constant shots. Victor could hear Chuck pumping rounds into the shotgun but only dimly aware of it as he made the monsters fight for every inch. With each passing second they push the knight back another tiny bit even as he dumped body after body down in front of him. They swarmed past him and he was forced to back up to avoid being flanked on the right side.

Retreating precious feet he was greeted with the lovely sound of a shotgun being cocked. The pressure coming to his right was blasted in half by the vicious buckshot that shredded the monsters at such close range. With Victor plugging half the alley Chuck got to work on the rest and put every shot to good use obliterating the line in front of him. Victor kept stabbing and Julia keeping shooting and for a moment it seemed like they would be able to stem the tide.

Unfortunately guns were only as useful as their bullets and all too quickly Chuck was out again. Victor could not see over the arms thumping him on the top of the head but he was sure that they were nowhere close to running out of enemies. As Chuck dropped back to reload again Victor was forced to follow and the three of them backed further into the alley. As he kept stabbing wildly the targets fell and another took its place a moment later. The only positive in their situation so far was that the bodies seemed to be slowing the charge of the mannequins somewhat.

"This is hopeless!" Julia shouted as she dropped another clip onto the ground.

"Just keep shooting!" Victor yelled back as a leg came over his shield and glanced off his helmet.

"We have to get out of here!" Chuck needlessly called from behind Victor.

"I'm open to ideas!" the knight said as he dropped another mannequin. His arm was beginning to tire both holding up the shield and constantly thrusting the sword over it but there was no chance for rest any time soon.

"Throw the grenades!" Julia yelled.

"What!"

"I said throw the damn grenades!" she repeated at the top of her lungs.

"They'll kill us too!" Victor tried to say.

"No choice! We're dead anyway! Do it Chuck!"

Finishing his reload the Canadian mowed down the row of mannequins Victor was having trouble keeping from overwhelming them. With a momentary reprieve the killer threw his empty shotgun at the monsters before scrambling for his vest pocket. The knight prayed for a quick death if things went wrong and to not be beaten into the afterlife by a mass of slimy limbs as Chuck pulled the pin on the first grenade.

"Duck, I guess!" the Canadian yelled as he heaved the explosive like a football over the mannequin army. Throwing it around the corner he scurried behind Victor and the knight dropped fully behind his shield. He hoped Julia was protecting herself but lost the thought at the grenade went off.

Even from around the corner he felt the thud in his chest and of all the gunshot sounds he'd experienced so far this one was much louder than any of them. Victor staggered back and shook his head to clear the aftershocks of the explosion from his ears. As the sound of the world slowly came back to him and debris rained down on the top of his helmet Victor realized that the mannequins were no longer pushing forward. The rest of the alley was obscured with the dust and smoke from the terrific explosion but it was likely their best bet on getting free.

"Follow me!" he called out and charged into the remaining mannequins. Without the mass behind them pushing forward the stupid creatures were easy to bowl over and he crashed through the ones that were still standing like a rhino barreling through tall grass. The ground changed from solid to half dead and still alive mannequins as Victor led the others through the thin line of monsters still standing. Bounding over the dead he entered the blast zone of the grenade to find the ground positively slippery with blood. The stink of it was over powering but Victor spotted a sight for sore eyes: the explosion had torn a hole into the side of the alley leading into the building. It was only a foot of jagged space or so but that was their salvation. On the other side of the blast radius was a lot of blood and a flattened but recovering mass of mannequins that stretched farther than Victor could see. There were far too many for the three of them to handle even in the most favorable of circumstances.

"Chuck! The second one! Drop it right there!" Victor pointed with his sword at the hole.

"Get back!" the Canadian ordered and Victor reversed direction to knock more of the mannequins down going back towards the dead end. Julia shot the few that resisted as Chuck slid to the corner and pulled out the last grenade that would either save their lives or doom them right then and there. Turning as he occupied the same spot he started in amongst the many dead monsters he watched the killer pull the pin and ever so gently lob the grenade towards the original spot. Turning and heaving himself onto the pile of corpses and still moving limbs Chuck covered his ears as Victor did his best to do the same.

The second blast didn't hurt quite as much as the first and once his equilibrium was no longer affected he went back the way he'd just come. There was only a lone mannequin standing and he knocked it down contemptuously as Julia helped Chuck to his feet. Climbing over the dead Victor squinted through the dust cloud to see a large hole rent in the side of the alley that led to the back of some store front. He could have cried at the sight but they needed to get moving before the mannequins regained their senses.

He would have to duck down but it was still big enough of an opening to safely get through. "Move!" he shouted at the other two. "Get in there before they finish the job!"

Stumbling, covered in blood and likely harried beyond measure the killer and the pilgrim dashed for the hole. Shoving himself inside Chuck went first and Julia dropped to all fours to crawl in behind him. Sheathing his sword Victor took one last glance at the mannequin army as it tried to stand again before he backed into the opening and pulled his shield through.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Old Friends

Scurrying into the darkened shop the trio only had a few moments to orient themselves before the monsters outside started to recover. Still unsure if he was permanently deaf or not Victor was somewhat pleased to hear Julia yelling at him to help her push something in front of their exit route. Throwing his gun aside Chuck assisted with pulling a rack of gardening equipment over the low hole leading to the alley. They were in some kind of hardware store which Victor knew he had been in at some point before but at the moment was only concerned with escaping it.

Proceeding calmly to the entrance and twisting the deadbolt open as the other two sent another rack crashing down on the opening Victor threw the door open to the street. Finding nothing but mist to his left he looked right to see a squad of the black armored mercenaries just as surprised to see him. The group regarded him for a moment as his already overtaxed mind wrapped itself around this new development. They raised their rifles and Victor jumped back inside as bullets thudded into the building. Throwing the deadbolt shut and jumping back from the door he ran into Julia who was trying to go the opposite direction.

"Oof! What the hell!"

"Did you hear those shots?" he asked.

"Oh. Crap. Crap!" she said with increasing amounts of concern.

"There's a squad outside." Victor reported grimly.

"Oh great!" she threw up her hands.

"This day just keeps getting better." Chuck muttered as he pumped red shells into his shotgun.

"We need a way out of here." Victor said more practically.

"D'uh! Crushed to death by a bunch of slimy bastards or shot by some assholes! Just the way I wanted to die!" Julia raged.

"Maybe if we're lucky we can make them fight each other." Victor suggested.

"When was luck ever been-" Chuck started.

The was an ear-splitting explosion of wood and metal that came from an uncomfortably close distance somewhere deeper in the store. It wasn't a bomb or grenade like the ones they had set off but a terrific rending of hard materials being torn apart as if by a wrecking ball. They looked at each other before scrambling forward to see what had just happened.

Skidding in unison to the other half of the store the blood drained from Victor's face and the warmth of his blood fled from him as he saw what had caused the cacophony. A giant hole had been smashed into the side of the wall from the next building and out of the dusty gloom a massive figure ducked its blood spattered, polyhedron head into the room. Stripped to the waist and wearing a filthy butcher's smock complete with gloves Pyramid Head dragged itself onward. Its body was pale white like all Silent Hill monsters but instead of being slick it was simply grotesquely muscled. A large piece of wall blocked its entry so it merely tore it down with one arm as it dragged behind it a blade the size of a man with the other.

The store was lit up a moment later with the sound of gunfire as both Julia and Chuck unloaded on the demon of the misty land. Bullets pounding into its body and went _ptnk!_ off of its gigantic, sharp angled helmet with enough force and volume to put down an elephant. The monster's skin was like a mummified corpse as the projectiles opened no wounds but only gritty entry wounds that seemed to do no damage. It had staggered back slightly at the force of the attacks but when the room was quiet save for the sound of Julia's finger clicking an empty gun it was no worse for wear.

"Fuck."

"Oh hell." they said at the same time and Victor was almost paralyzed with indecision as the creature resumed its slow march forward.

"Guys, ideas, now." Julia said as she hurriedly reloaded.

"Can we start crying now?" Chuck asked.

Victor was too distracted by the deadliest adversary to have ever walked the earth to think clearly. He had once gone toe to toe with it for the better part of ten minutes to save Julia deep under Lake Toluca years ago. It was immaculate, immortal, heaved the blade it carried like it was a toothpick and never tired. His home made shield and armor rent in a dozen places and one solid blow from bleeding to death the knight had escaped with her just before the monster had finished him off. Now he was staring it the face again with nothing in the intervening years giving him reason to think he could survive another encounter.

"Vic!" Julia shook him as it dragged itself closer.

"Huh!" he snapped out of it.

"We're in jam here! Keep it together!" she said as they all backed up.

"How do we get out?" Chuck said on the verge of hysteria. How were they supposed to get out? Three enemy forces were converging on them and the only way out was-

Hope exploded across Victor's mind like a flash of lightning against a darkened sky. Sheathing his sword he shook his shield off his arm as Pyramid Head lurched further into the store. "I've got it." he announced. "Chuck, take my shield. Jewel, get his shotgun. The both of you, get to the corners of this room."

"In there with that thing! Are you nuts!" Chuck cried.

"It just made the only way out of here." Victor said as steadily as he could. "Stay as far away from it as you can. Not even Pyramid Head can go three different directions at once."

"What are you talking about Vic?"

"I'm going to get his attention." Victor said. "Draw all of our enemies into this building at once and then he can judge them all."

"Wait, no, that's insane!" she exclaimed. "You'll get killed!"

"I'll be fine, Jewel." he promised as Pyramid Head threw an entire shelf out of its way.

"Bullshit." she said desperately.

"No arguing. I'll meet you back in 45." he said. She looked as pained as he'd ever seen her and for a moment he thought she wasn't going to comply. Grabbing the back of his helmet Julia forced her mouth onto his for an all-too-quick moment.

"You'd better come back alive or I'm going to haunt your ass." she declared and ran to the corner of the room. Blinking in uncertainty Chuck looked at Victor for a second before doing the same. Standing directly in front of the monster Victor writhed his hands before forcing himself to let them hang at his sides. There were aisles of merchandise in between them which the monster simply cleaved through with a blow so hard it rattled the ground. Bits of rack and metal pinged off of his armor as Victor made himself stand strong.

Stooping down he picked up a piece of rubble and hurled it at the creature's helmet. It bounced off harmlessly but Victor considered it a moral victory. "Hey! You remember me, demon?" he called out to it. The monster had never made a sound as far as he knew, never a grunt or cry or even a breath. He had no way of knowing if it could understand him but goading it at least made him forget for a few moments the mortal danger he was in.

"You think I'm afraid of you and that oversized can open you're carrying? I've seen children with more intimidating weapons than that. You couldn't kill me before with it and you can't now. Unless maybe you're the one whose afraid of me?"

The creature did not respond but continued to drag itself past the destruction it had caused. With Julia and Chuck only fifteen feet away from it on either side he had to keep it coming straight forward if either of them were going to escape. Drawing his sword he waited until it had only one aisle to break through to assume a fighting stance. Instead of using its great knife Pyramid Head merely smashed down with its free hand and pulverized the shelf like it was made of paper. Throwing the shelf back it was momentarily occupied as Victor darted in to slap the tip of its helmet with his blade. Dancing back as the monster swiped at him with the knife he felt the swish of air from a blow that would have cut him in half.

"Now! Go!" he yelled at his companions. He saw them running and disappear behind the monster but could not take his attention off of it. Backing up he ran into one of the shelves it hadn't demolished and Victor realized that this was going to be closer than he thought. To his left the monsters from the alley were pushing on the makeshift barrier they'd set up and to his right the mercenaries were either waiting for him to come out or about to come inside as well. Putting his blade away Victor retreated to the farthest opposite wall of the store some seven aisles from Pyramid Head.

Crouching down behind tarps and camping equipment he waited tensely for something, anything to halt the advance of the monster still coming directly at him. Crossing the threshold into the second part of the store it speared the first of the seven aisles and cut through it effortlessly. If something didn't happen soon he would be stuck trying to work his way around the monster without anything else getting its attention.

The sound of the front door being beat on came as music to his ears. The creaking of the shelves Julia had thrown down signaled that the horde was almost through and if it wasn't for the fact that he was stuck in the middle things would have being turning out perfectly. Crashing through aisles two and three Pyramid Head was getting uncomfortably close and Victor was going to have to speed things up or he might not make it.

"Hey you idiots!" he yelled at the door. "I'm in here!"

He didn't know how many bullets they pumped through the door but it was enough that a few of them tagged Pyramid Head on the side of its helmet. The door was swiss cheese when the mercenaries finally kicked it in and not a moment too soon. Dim light from outside and combat armored men poured into the hardware store while the shelves were finally pushed out of the way by the mass of slimy bodies from the alley. They tore the hole larger with the weight of dozens of faceless and headless monsters which streamed forward towards the mercenaries. There were at least eight of them squaring off against the monsters, all armed with high powered rifles and the half-destroyed store took more damage as the men opened fire on everything.

Hundreds of rounds filled the air and the guns kicked up a terrible racket as wood, skin, metal and monster were punished by the impressive firepower of the mercenaries. Victor hit the ground so as not to be seen while his enemies sorted themselves out. When the bullets ran out the knight listened as the sound of dozens of feet poured into the room even with all the casualties the horde must have just sustained. Clips were quickly reloaded but it was the vibration of one impossibly heavy step he was waiting for. It was followed with the sick, audible sound of bodies being cut in half that confirmed he wasn't at the top the Pyramid Head's hit list at that moment.

Looking up over the tarps he saw the polyhedron headed menace cut down four slimy monsters with one blow as blood splattered over the room. A mercenary cocked his rifle and unloaded a clip at the monster's helmet and Victor watched in horror with the rest of the sentient life forms in the room as Pyramid Head took the bullets in stride before stepping towards the door and splitting the mercenary in half from shoulder to groin with his terrible blade.

The men were in shock for a moment even as the swarm of monsters streamed past the unstoppable killer into their ranks. Cries went up and bullets started flying while the terror of Silent Hill began killing men and mannequin alike. Victor saw his chance and crept to the end of the aisle towards the hole in the wall. The store had become a maelstrom of blood, bullets, screams and death but he saw his way out. If he could shoulder his way through the stream of monsters and avoid Pyramid Head he could escape through the same opening his companions did. Shield-less but still very well protected by his armor he charged headlong into creatures still piling into the room.

Out of the corner of his eye to the right Victor saw the killing knife, thoroughly soaked in blackish as well as human blood, come up and swipe backhanded in his direction even though the helmet was pointing in the other direction. The force of the blow halted and reversed the mass of incoming mannequins so hard that Victor and the rest of the them were slammed back even with ten feet of slimy flesh to soften the blow. The impact knocked them down like dominoes and the knight was blown over with the rest of the bodies.

Head snapping unexpectedly and in an unusual direction Victor's vision blackened for a few moments as he found himself laying back in a heap of monsters that at least seemed as disoriented as he was. Shoving slick torso and slimy arms out of his way the knight dug himself out of the pile just in time to see Pyramid Head wading through the bodies surrounding it towards him. He did not panic often but he panicked now as he scrambled up to unsteady feet made even more precarious by the mess of limbs under them.

It staggered forward and Victor had nowhere to go that it's frightful weapon couldn't cut him off, literally. There wasn't time to think through a better solution so the knight did the only thing he could and dove into the pile of bodies mostly blocking the exit back into the alley. He might very well be crushed to death by the horde but at least he had a chance as opposed to having none now. Some of the monsters were trying to get back to their freakish feet or hands that served as feet but more were simply trying to get into the room still.

Landing on his chest somewhat close to the floor and on top of a few monsters Victor crawled forward on hands and knees. He was trampled on and beaten with heavy blows from the mannequins all over his head, back and legs but he doggedly moved forward for his life. A foot hit him in the back of the head hard enough to make it bounce off the floor and without the helmet on there was a good chance he would have never gotten up. Brain swimming and torso rattling he forced his upper body halfway into the alley which might just as assuredly kill him as the beast just feet behind.

He tried to at least get to his knees but the mannequins were too many. The rain of attacks was suddenly ceased as a cannonball hit directly overhead and plowed through the wall into the alley he was trying so desperately to get to. A warm sensation spread down the back of his neck and into the joints of his armor as small weights fell onto his back. Dimly looking up he saw that it wasn't a cannonball but the great knife that had embedded itself almost to the hilt in the alley way directly across from him. The monster had thrown the weapon and eviscerated a great swath of mannequins creatures both behind and in front of Victor. The weights on his back were body parts and the warm sensation was a shower of gore that was quickly turning into a pool.

Aching muscles objected as the knight made it into the alley and pushed himself to his feet. Swaying awkwardly he lurched forward and slipped on the blood pool back to his knees. Risking a look behind him he saw Pyramid Head almost to the hole Victor had just crawled through. To his left there were only a dozen or so mannequins remaining and Victor found the strength to run at them. They beat him across the face and chest as he shouldered his way past but they were only more bruises for later instead of a messy death. Bursting out from the group he jogged forward as fast as he could towards the alley's exit. There might have been more mercenaries waiting for him but he didn't care. Anything was better than fighting an enemy he couldn't hope to best.

Reaching the alley's mouth Victor found himself alone and out of breath. Gratefully resting on the wall for a moment he recuperated as long as he dared before he turned right and headed back into the mists towards their safe house. Battered, injured and absolutely soaked with blood the knight forced himself onward and hoped that his friends had escaped the carnage in one piece as well. He wanted to go back and look for them but in reality there was little he could do to help. Leaving red foot prints as he went Victor stumbled along towards safety.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Ridin' Merrily Along

Edging away from the frightful beast dragging its killing weapon towards her man Julia clutched her useless pistol to her as tightly as a child holding a stuffed animal in the hopes that it would ward away imagined monsters. Here though the monsters were real and the weapon was little more than a comfort at this point. There was nothing she could do against the powerful and quite possibly unkillable creature with a helmet that looked like it would cut or stab just as well as the impossibly large knife it carried. Watching it tear through the aisles of equipment it would have taken all three of them to move like they were cardboard did nothing to ease the rotten feeling in her stomach for Victor. Still, she knew the look on his face and that it wasn't the time to argue. If they both made it out of this – when they both made it out of this alive – she was going to smack him upside the head for doing something so stupid.

Smashing through the last of the racks between it and Victor she watched him unbelievably tap the creature on the helmet with his bright sword. It responded with an attack that would have knocked down a building but Victor escaped harm to her anxiety's momentary respite.

"Now! Go!" he yelled at them and Julia almost forgot what they had planned as she was mesmerized by the scene unfolding in front of her. Regretting every second of leaving she nevertheless did as she was bade and ran along the wall of the store to come around to the giant opening the furious Pyramid Head had created for them. She was dismayed to find that the wall of the store was pressed up against the next building's exterior so close they were almost touching. The monster had cut through both walls with a single swipe that only served to remind her of how much danger Victor was in.

Chuck bounded through the opening and into the next building which was some kind of office complete with desks and filing cabinets galore. The glass windows and door to the office worried her but there was no time to be picky about preferred exits and entrances. The Canadian peeked out at the swirling mist both ways before ducking down and swearing to himself.

"What!" she whispered harshly.

"The soldiers are about to go inside the other building." he reported.

"Schist. How could this get any worse?"

"I guess-" he started but Chuck was interrupted by a hail of bullets shredding wood. If there was any blood in Julia's face it left her now and that sick feeling grew to nausea as she ducked down. Seriously contemplating heading back the way she came she told herself she had to trust Victor. Watching from the door Chuck was glued to their enemies and just before a blitz of gunfire erupted nearby he waved at her to follow him. Running awkwardly into the locked door Chuck looked at it like it had been the one to make a mistake before unlocking it and scrambling out onto the street. Staying close behind him Julia went with a heavy heart as they headed away from the din of a full scale battle.

Sprinting as fast as they could one, two blocks away it was Chuck who suddenly decelerated to almost a complete stop in front of her. Her momentum carried the pilgrim a little past him and she saw what had made him halt so abruptly. In front of them was a squad of six darkened figures in the mist heading directly into their path. They weren't quite in range to see them clearly but from the outlines and the way they were standing they were not Silent Hill monsters.

The barrel of the shotgun came up all on its own and she braced her shoulder for a punishing kick back as she pulled the trigger. The gun punched into her arm but the deafening blast and buckshot scattered the dark figures. Not particularly worried about hitting anything she fired again at the empty air before taking off to the right until she had made it fully into the next street and away from return fire. She heard Chuck's footsteps behind her and looked around for a quick exit as her heart pounded in her chest like a mad smith trying to hammer through his anvil. Spotting a large clothing store she ran towards it for no other reason than hoping to get lost inside. Blowing past the door she stopped in the entrance of the dusty shop and Chuck ran into her from behind. They looked at each other for a frantic moment before she said, "Um, hide."

Looking around for something big enough to contain a human she spotted the dressing rooms on the far right of the entrance. Rushing over to it she threw open the slatted door to a stall and scooted inside. To her surprise Chuck was following her still and the two of them crammed in to the small space. The large shield he was carrying barely fit between the two of them and Julia had to cram against the side of the stall.

"What are you doing!" she hissed as she tried to slow her breathing.

"I don't know! I'm freaking out!" he whispered back.

"We can't both fit in here!"

"I know! And worse, this is a woman's dressing room!"

"Quiet!" she ordered. Reaching to one of the slats at eye level she turned it just enough to see out into the store. Fear knotted her stomach into a ball as the soldiers crept into the building. Cursing whatever had given them away she watched the men spread out among the racks with practiced efficiency. Faces obscured by the black masks and red, glowing goggles the mercenaries looked very much like they belonged here even if nothing truly did. As they prodded large displays to make sure their targets weren't among them Julia noticed for the first time how many mannequins were on display in the store. Posed just like they were almost twenty years ago with the fashion horrors of both a small country town and the 1980s in play they would have ordinarily looked garish, even comical. Now though the harmless poses and ridiculously quaint outfits had a much more sinister effect.

Sweat trickled down the back of her neck and Julia gripped her shotgun in case she had to use it again all too soon. One of the mercenaries was angling towards them and she prayed that the men would just leave without any further altercations. She was on the verge of shutting her eyes just so she wouldn't throw up from the apprehension when she saw movement. It wasn't coming from the men but from the entrance of the store where they had all come in.

Stepping down from pedestals and creeping across the floor in slow motion were each of the mannequins the mercenaries had already passed by. Julia silently wailed at the sight straight out of her nightmares even before she noticed that most of them were holding butcher knives. Chest freezing up from the overload of terror she could only watch as her brain told her to run as they crept up on the men searching for them. One of the armor clad soldiers looked behind him for a moment, perhaps feeling the eyeless gaze on his back. Incredibly all of the mannequins froze in unison when he surveyed the room and resumed their unhurried pace the moment he turned away.

Senses screaming at her to do something, anything Julia witnessed the mannequins, outnumbering the men almost three to one, close in around the humans without the soldiers even knowing. Unsure what to do and scared out of her wits Julia knew that she was going to have to make a hard choice and fast. Logically these men were going to kill them if they could and deserved what they were about to get but the pilgrim didn't know if she could just stand there and let it happen. The decision came swifter than she was prepared for when one of the moving dolls raised its knife only a few feet from one of the men.

"Behind you!" she cried out and everything seemed to happen at once. The mercenaries all turned towards the sound of her voice and the mannequins dropped the pretense of being inanimate and sprang forward. Most of the men warded off killer blows from the ambush as the mannequins swarmed over the humans. Chuck broke out of the stall and ran towards the exit leaving Julia a second to gather her fractured wits and follow him.

Gunfire went off and she hoped it wasn't at them as they made a dash for the door. Ahead a mercenary was on the ground and being stabbed at by three of the knife-wielding plastic attackers. To her amazement Chuck stopped to shield bash two of them off the hapless soldier who could only raise his arms in defense. Stopping for a critical second to put herself in a firing stance she blasted the final mannequin at point blank range with the shotgun. It disintegrated into a cloud of plastic and she tore by the twice bewildered soldier without even getting a good look to see if he was okay.

Out in the misty streets Chuck looked unsure of what to do and Julia passed him by as stood there. "Come on!" she said and continued the direction they were going before taking that ill-fated detour to hide. Flicking the safety on the shotgun she held it at her side and increased her speed to a light run that she could sustain for miles if necessary. Her pack jingled and slapped her back with each stride but she had to ignore it to keep going. The hours and days of keeping herself in fighting shape were paying off and it was many blocks before she turned back. Chuck was barely in sight and she waited for him to catch up and she slowed her breathing down.

Bending over when he reached her he sucked in air as she inhaled and exhaled rhythmically. Letting the shield slide off his arm to rest on the street the Canadian look extraordinarily winded. "Think...I'm gonna...hurl..." he panted.

"Get your breath back Chuck, we have to keep going." she urged.

"Can...hardly breath...sides...ache..."

"They're going to be looking for us still. We can't just stand here out in the open."

"You..warned them." he wheezed.

"No more talking. Rest another minute and then we gotta go."

Straightening out to rest his hands on his hips he took in repeated deep breaths as sweat streamed down his face. Bruises and welts from random mannequin attacks decorated his visage and his chest was covered in blood and flecks of flesh. Most of it wasn't his but enough had dried on his face to make Julia wonder how she looked. After the short break they resumed their pace and the pilgrim did not stop until she estimated that they had been running almost twenty minutes. Slowing to a halt as her feet started to ache just slightly Julia noticed a large, older building with a curious cross on the top. Instead of a solid vertical and horizontal bar it had a circle in the center which was surrounded with a tiny cross above, below, to the left and to the right.

Looking behind her she saw Chuck's shuffling form bringing up the rear. Breathing out hard she let herself relax as he doggedly caught up to her again. "Oh my god..." he gasped. "I think...I'm gonna die..."

"Funny." she rolled her eyes as they'd already escaped two life threatening situations before the day was over. "Let's head in there." she pointed at the crossed building.

"Huh...huh...yeah whatever." he agreed and she led them to the ancient and heavy doors up a short stone stairway. Yanking on the wrought iron handle the door creaked with age as she pulled it open. From inside stale air escaped and made her nervous. Going into a place that hadn't already been picked over or cleaned out always made her edgy. Pushing the safety to the shotgun off she cautiously went in with Chuck's heavy breathing directly behind.

The once grand foyer indicated that this was an expensive place to stay back in its hey day. In front was a turn of the century lobby complete with desk and light coming in from the sides. Two curving, carpeted staircases on either side of the desk met at the top of the next floor and had to have been a swank sight long ago. Now though the carpet was brownish and dusty, the railings caked in filth and the entire lobby devoid of any color or warmth. There was a questionable odor as well that Julia simply decided to ignore for the time being.

"Huh." Chuck grunted. "Nice place."

"Yeah. Looks like there's some elevators past the stairs."

"No!" he blurted. Julia raised an eyebrow and the Canadian abashedly composed himself. "Ahem. I mean, no, that's a bad idea."

"Why?"

"Uh...let's just say it's better to avoid elevators if we can." he said. "Things tend to get weird on them."

"All right, all right, we can use the stairs." she assented. Heading up the dingy steps they carefully crept their way into the building. It was either an old hotel or an old apartment building converted from a hotel but the numbers had been pried off all the doors. Choosing a random door she tried the handle only to find it locked.

"Going in?" Chuck asked with his breathing fully under control again.

"Just wanted a place to reset and figure out our next move."

"Blast the lock off. No one's going to stop you."

"I'd rather not let everything in the area know where we are." she objected. "And if we're staying a while we should be able to lock the door."

"Hmm. Good point. And chance we can break in? Do you have a credit card handy?"

"No." she sighed.

"Lock picking kit?"

"I left it with my credit card and grappling hook that I use to break into place all the time?" she said with a shrug.

"Your sarcasm isn't helping my morale." Chuck made a face.

"Keep looking, ya lousy bum."

They checked handles down the long hallway until Chuck found an open room. Waiting for her before entering he raised the greenish shield and gently pushed the door in with his finger tips. Keeping his body protected he led the way as Julia kept the shotgun aimed down at the floor. The room was very well kept but the furniture was so old that Julia's grandmother would have found it a little dated. Other than the general decrepitness of the building and the musty stank of decomposing carpet the room was something of a good find. Checking the large bedroom and attached bathroom she was relieved to find the place empty.

"Whew." the Canadian said and let his guard down. Sliding the shield off and dropping it on the main room's table he slumped onto the ancient sofa with the look of a man who wasn't getting up any time soon. Laying down the shotgun Julia unbuckled her pistols and dropped her bag of ammo onto the floor. Taking a well earned break she sat down on the other end of the couch and let her head rest back on the disarmingly comfortable sofa.

Things weren't quite going the way she wanted them to. Dumb, awkward monsters they could deal with, evade, out wit. Unstoppable, knife dragging behemoths, trained gunmen and magic using cultists were a completely different story. There was no advantage they had against any of those foes that would assure victory.

"What's our next move?" Chuck asked with his eyes closed, interrupting her reflection.

"We should stay here for a while. Throw them off the trail." she suggested. "That's what Victor would do."

"How long should we wait?"

"I don't know, a day? I want to get back to Nathan to make sure he's okay but not when the retail area is crawling with soldiers and that...thing."

"Amen to that." he agreed. "Could go the rest of my life without ever seeing that thing again."

"Mmm." she murmured and they sat in peaceful silence for a minute or so.

"So what made you warn the soldiers?" Chuck asked.

"Oh...yeah." she said. "I don't know. I mean, they were going to kill us right? I shouldn't have said anything...but I couldn't. Mannequins coming alive is like a phobia of mine. I couldn't just sit there at let those people get stabbed to death by those creepy bastards. It's not how I would have wanted to go out."

"Yeah." he said. "I get it. I bet you that guy we saved has no idea why he's alive right now. Dude owes us big time."

"I wouldn't expect a bro-hug when you see him again."

"I wasn't. Maybe a I won't shoot you if you don't shoot me kind of deal."

She shrugged but it did remind her of another absent ally. "Couldn't help but notice that your pal didn't show up even after we dug him out of the ice."

Chuck nodded with a distracted look on his beaten face. "I know. That's the first time I've been in a situation I couldn't handle myself that he didn't show up to. I think he might be worse off than we thought."

"In fairness, he was dead when we found him. I suppose he could have shown up just to get his corpse shot up instead of us."

"He'll come through, trust me. I'm positive. If he wasn't here it was because he couldn't be, not because he didn't want to be." Chuck promised.

"Sound pretty sure of yourself talking about a guy who never bothered to tell you that he was dead before you ever met him. How do you know he's not sitting under a heat lamp somewhere enjoying a martini?"

"That's not his style. Besides, if your man was telling the truth about not needing to eat after living here for years, what do you think the Dark Man needs to get by?"

"Rather not know to be honest." she said.

"Well, I think- hold up, speaking of martinis, is that a mini-fridge?"

Julia had looked right at it when they came in but didn't make the connection that there might still be alcohol in it. While Chuck ambled over to it Julia crossed her fingers that the ingredients for an appletini would be available. It was a mad hope to get her favorite drink in this place but worth holding onto.

"Tch." he clicked disapprovingly and her heart sank. "Just a bottle of whiskey and some mini wine bottles."

"Huh. That's looking up." she said even if it wasn't a delicious appley-flavored beverage but she was willing to take what she could get. "Wait a second, are you even old enough to drink?"

"Seriously? You're asking me that right now?"

"Just curious, jeez."

"In Canada I am, now." he mused.

"You're not in Canada anymore, sweetie."

"I'm not on Earth anymore. What the hell does age matter in a place like this?" he shook his head. "Are you having some?"

"Hells yes I am."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Nowhereness

Huffing as he trotted up to the apartments on Nathan Street, Victor took one look around him to make sure he wasn't being followed before going inside. Taking the back stair case to avoid the one they'd ruined the weary knight was relieved to not have any more monstrous company on his way up. Entering the apartment he stripped off his greenish armor on the way to the bathroom and left the stained metal where it fell. Avoiding looking at his reflection in the mirror he knew that he had taken a vicious beating at the hands, feet and other random body parts of the mannequins. Peeling sticky clothes from his body he turned the shower's faucet on and was grateful to have clear water come out of it. It was cold but better than nothing as he stepped in only to wince from the stinging. Various wounds and gashes seared under the relentless stream but he knew it was necessary to clean them out.

After scrubbing himself as best as he could Victor brought his clothes into the shower and did what he could to rinse the blackish blood from them. Wringing out inhuman fluid from his clothes as he'd done a million times before he hung them to dry on the shower stall and dragged himself out into the living room. Picking up his scabbard and blade from the floor the knight retired to the bedroom. Aching all over he crawled onto the bed and laid the sword down beside him where his girlfriend should have been. It did not take long for him to drift off even as he realized that he had not bothered sweeping the rooms before laying down.

It couldn't have been more than a couple of hours but he felt much better on waking then he had earlier. The soreness of the day's combat was just beginning to set in and he knew that it was only going to get worse from here. Rising to get water and double checking that he was alone the knight returned to bed for another hour of half sleep before getting up for good. Ingesting a MRE he set to work cleaning his armor and making sure it was all in once piece still. Despite the rough treatment he could barely find a nick in the master crafted metal that fit him like a glove.

The task did have the unfortunate side effect of giving him time to think. The more he thought about it the more Victor began to regret his decision to come back here without Julia. So many things could have gone wrong and already had when they last saw each other. Maybe she was just fine and was on her way back even now. Maybe the both of them were dead already. It was the second possibility that kept the knight awake long after the ineffectual light of the sun gave way to darkness. When he was finally ready to fall asleep for the night he was troubled with images of Julia being torn apart by the town's barbaric residents.

The next morning brought no dark-haired, green eyed women and his anxiety began to grow with the passing hours. Trying to ignore his discomfort Victor laid down on the couch with a book and attempted to dismiss the urge to go looking for her. The day rolled on with no sign of Julia and he could hardly concentrate on what he was reading. Looking at the words in front of him but thinking about putting his armor on the knight saw a flash come in from the windows. Bolting upright he stared at the curtained glass for a few moments before a loud peal of thunder rattled them from outside.

Victor searched his mind for an incident like this one but could not recall a single instance of lightning and thunder in all the time he spent in Silent Hill. Even more strange the light coming in from outside began to dim and somewhere in the distance a medieval, crude sounding battle horn blew one long, undulating note. It was striking similar but completely different than the familiar siren horn that accompanied Silent Hill's change into its true form. Something was wrong and the hair on the back of Victor's neck stood up as the room descended into impenetrable gloom. Briefly lit by another brilliant flash from outside the ensuing thunder came much sooner and louder this time. It was the last thing he heard or saw before he was plunged into total darkness. The book fell out of his hands as he realized something very strange was going on.

One, two, four drops and then a steady beat of rain fell on him and Victor was now very confused as he thought he was indoors just a second ago. Feeling around for his sword he was shocked to find cold, wet stone where the coffee table should have been. The sword had been an arm's reach away but was now gone along with any semblance of the furniture that had been there a moment ago. Feeling along the edge of the stone slab he discovered that it was roughly the same size and height of the table but was one solid piece joined to the floor. The room had gone and morphed right under him, quite literally.

The couch seemed to still be the same and he continued to sit on it as he listened for something, anything. It wasn't easy with the patter of drops hitting stone all around him but he discerned what had to be wind blowing in from his right. That was where the bathroom should have been but he had no illusions that it was still going to be there when everything else seemed to have changed. Standing up he tapped his way with one foot towards the sound. When he struck something he put his hands out to touch a slick, chilled stone wall identical in texture to the stone table and floor. Moving his hands across its surface he found a straight, carved crack that ran up higher than he could reach. Not sure what he had found he swept his fingers in every direction until he hit an object protruding from the wall. Outlining it with his fingers he realized that it was a door knob. Twisting and pushing on it the wall gave way and became a door.

From the opening he made in the room wind and faint light came coming rushing in from wherever he was going into. Back lit from the other side he could see the door's outline as he was let out into an area much larger than the tiny bathroom that should have been there. The wind kicked up at a frantic pace the more he opened it and the rain was much heavier as he opened it. Stepping fully out into this new area it took him a few moments to perceive what was around him in the extremely limited light.

Far, far above him was the top of a mighty tower with a pulsing beam bright enough to show up on the stone under his feet. The tower, as far as he could tell, was made out of the same dark stone as everything else. It was hard to be sure with the beating rain soaking his clothes and blurring his vision but even in these poor condition he could be sure of another disturbing fact. He was on a semi-circular platform with a railing that ended out in the open air looking over a city of some kind currently being torn apart. There were light so far away they might as well have been stars but he could see flashes, flames and occasional explosions so distant he couldn't hear them.

Despite the ambient noise of the storm Victor was unnerved to hear _something_ beating wings nearby. Whatever it was it had to be big enough that the act of flying produced the racket needed to overcome the deluge pounding the stone around him. Looking up at the murky sky the knight was wholly unprepared for what happened next. A bolt of lighting – a river of lighting – far bigger than anything he'd ever seen on earth erupted from halfway across the horizon to connect to the pulsing orb on top of the tower. The flash, like the entirety of creation erupting into existence in a black void, was only a second long but lit up the dark night almost to day and exposed things Victor could barely comprehend.

The grand balcony he was currently standing on was indeed part of the impossibly tall tower he assumed he was near the bottom of but wasn't even close. The buildings of the city in the distance were so minute he had to be miles in the sky but that was patently absurd. Lastly, and by far the most unsettling, the sky was full of avian shapes, planes, zeppelins, large birds and what appeared to be sailing vessels from the days of conquistadors moving through the darkened firmament. As it turned out the creature close enough for him to hear was so large it blotted out a quarter of the sky with its massive wings. It was, but couldn't have been, a gigantic dragon circling above.

The following thunderclap was so loud he had to cover his ears and cower from it even as he mind tried to make sense of the boggling sights he had just taken in. Previously the grenades in the alley were the loudest thing he'd ever heard but this was of greater magnitude in every way. He felt the rolling thunder reverberate in his chest and all around him for several seconds like a airborne earthquake while he huddled on the balcony. The ceaseless rain took over when the thunder abated and it was a welcome change even as it chilled his body and began turning his extremities numb.

Two things were painfully clear both figuratively and literally from the buzzing in his ears: one, he was no longer in any place known in Silent Hill for sure. The area was simply too large, too different, too unlike the town in any version he'd ever seen. He'd spent seven years climbing through the rusted steel and darkness to be wrong about this. The flora and fauna born of a thousand nightmares he'd memorized, fought, killed and ran from many times he knew all too well. This place had nothing he recognized in the slightest.

Secondly, he was woefully out of his element and completely unprepared to deal with any possible threats. The flying creature – he refused to acknowledge that it might have been anything real – was much larger than a modern 747 jet liner. He wouldn't even know how to begin fighting it other than running away for dear life. Staying low to the cold stone Victor went directly backwards from where he came in. Eyes readjusted to the gloom he used the outline of the balcony to judge how far he was moving. It did not take long to find the wall he had come out of but he searched in vain for the exit. Only after minutes of searching in both directions without finding so much as a chip in the wall did he realize he escape route had vanished.

Slumping against the wall as the uncaring rain showed no signs of letting up Victor at least put his back to safety. Soaked, cold, alone and clueless about what to do next he could only sit there and pray that the dra- that the flying beast did not come for him. He never thought he would wish for the familiar danger of his home town but he did now. At least those were evils he knew how to combat.

There was no way to tell how much time had passed as his rear began to get sore and his toes went completely numb. Lightning again flashed but it was far enough away that he did not have to cover his ears from the aftershock. He did however see for the briefest of seconds a glimpse of a door directly across the way on the other side of the balcony. With nothing else to do and nowhere else to go he decided that he would at least try to get out of the cold.

Keeping one hand in contact with the tower's exterior wall at all times he worked his way around in a semi circle towards where he saw the door. The balcony and the outer layer of the tower all looked like one solid piece of darkness in the the low light and his fingers could barely feel the texture of the stone but he continued until he was almost on the other side of the balcony. As he closed in on the railing he thought perhaps he had just imagined the door but then his fingers struck the threshold and he almost cried out in joy. Feeling around for any kind of handle he discovered a heavy ring that served as a door knob. Pulling first with no results he then pushed and the surprisingly wooden door cracked open.

Light rushed all around him as he stepped into a long hallway with a high ceiling well-illuminated by rows of burning torches set at identical intervals into the walls. The knight had to squint as he hurried inside and shut the door behind him. The rain dripped off of him as he stole towards the heat of the torches that began to slowly warm his goose-bumped skin.

The hall was made of the same black stone as everything else in this accursed place and seeing it in the light did little to change his perception of what it looked like. It was a deep, matte obsidian color that was smooth but not perfectly smooth that made up the passage he was in. The vaulted ceiling was some thirty feet up and was made more impressive by the mural that covered the walls right up to where it began to curve. Ancient in style and condition the mural depicted massive battles and events in a war between blue, winged heroes and green eyed demons. Every ten feet or so elaborate, wrought iron scones were set into the walls and Victor noticed now that the flames burning on the torches set into them were moving in slow motion. Unable to see to the end of the hall and not particularly keen to return outside the knight decided that he would at least be warm if he was going to be attacked.

"Folio..." someone said in Latin after he'd gone ten feet and Victor almost jumped out of his skin. Whirling around he found himself still alone in the hall.

"Show yourself!" he demanded to the thin air while privately hoping whoever it was wouldn't.

"Caelum supra, vox infra..." the voice said again in its accented tone but he did not understand the words. Looking all around and finally up the knight was shocked to find Nothing laying on the ceiling directly above him. Resting on his back with eyes closed apparently oblivious to the concept of gravity the Fater was still in the black straightjacket they found him in.

"Nothing." Victor said. "Finally. You better have some answers for me."

The long dead shade opened his good eye and suddenly the world was plunged into total darkness. Victor blinked in the lack of light and then found himself kneeling on a large stone circle with intricate carvings along the outside circumference. Surrounding him was a carpet of bright green leaves extending a hundred feet in every direction. He was now in a gigantic chamber with a rows of at least 25 steps directly in front of him. At the top was a highly decorated and carved throne made of skulls, bones and metal from species both human and very inhuman. The metal was the same greenish substance his armor was made from and Victor subconsciously gulped at the possible source of the ore. The back of the bone chair was made of skulls which went up so high he could barely see it at the top of the room. Lounging on the throne was the Fater with his straightjacket and a bolt of silken black cloth wrapped around the left side of his head over his missing eye.

Somewhat bewildered Victor still had to marvel at the completely alien environment he was in. None of this was like Silent Hill in the slightest and he had a feeling as to why that was now that he had met Nothing in his natural habitat.

"So Fater, not only have you shed your mortality but you've also managed to warp Silent Hill itself into something of your own image." he said.

"As educated a guess a conventional _hahdrim_ could muster." the phantom croaked with a voice that seemed to emanate from all around instead of from the man himself. "Yet flawed like your weak flesh begging for a Sacrament."

"What is this place then? It's not the misty land anymore, not even close."

"'Tis beyond your ken, little leaf. A fragment of the divine in solid form. An aberrant wish made real through the revivification of Xuchilbara."

The Fater never gave a straight answer but the knight at least partially understood what he was saying. "I'm not fully getting it but...are you saying this place was made...by your ascension?"

Shaking his head sadly Nothing looked up and spread his hands as if asking the heavens for guidance. "Incognizable is its nature, much like the beauty of the mists to unworthy supplicants. Mine face doth be unknowable to thee, _flosculus._"

"Your face..." Victor echoed. "This place is a part of you...or it is you?"

The ghost spread his arms again and laughed frantically like a chainsaw grating against solid rock. "Now we are come to the end, Victor Rosencrantz. At last into the grave you go. Into Nowhere, you stand. Each breath you take, mine to give. Each step you take, by my will be done. Thus from me, unto me, for me."

The knight's mind reeled at the implications. Everything he'd seen to this pint made sense now, the similarities to Silent Hill's change, the foreign and impossible landscape, the apparent omnipotence of the Fater. It wasn't just a part of Silent Hill he had managed to usurp and rule over. It was a place completely of his own make and if he was to be believed, composed of the Fater himself. As Victor struggled to make sense of this revelation he was haunted by one looming question, one that had bothered him for years: if this place was the doing of Nothing then who was behind the otherworldly nature of Silent Hill itself?

The knight had so many questions he didn't even know where to begin. How was this even possible? What was behind the change from the real world to either Nowhere or the rusted version of Silent Hill? How did the Fater traverse realities between both versions of the ghost town, here and the real world? "I...I don't...I can't even..." he stuttered.

"Now it understands. Silly meat, grasping at the wind. Sooner you'd catch the air in your paws." Nothing said unhelpfully.

"How did you do this?"

"Continue I do, explaining what cannot be explained yet you ignore the obvious. Stick your head in the sand a little longer, dying leaf, if you wish to remain among the ignorant."

He wasn't being very clear and that suggested to Victor that Nothing expected some of his earlier gibberish to have already made everything clear. Thinking back to what he was saying the knight reviewed some of the nonsense more closely in his mind. The 'revivification of Xuchilbara' part was bothering him. Rarely did the Fater offer a complete fabrication; most of the time his words only made sense in hindsight but they did make sense eventually.

"Xuchilbara...this is possible because of the Descent isn't it? Some kind of unexpected side effect of your death and resurrection? Or did you plan this from the start?"

The mad king only stared and Victor assumed he was on the right track. "All right...I think I'm beginning to understand. You stole the ceremony from the Order and raised yourself up to this...form of yours. Instead of staying here though, wherever this is, you cross over to Silent Hill to battle them and do...whatever it is you do there. But they found a way to beat you after all these years of you hunting them. How? How did they lock you under the ice?"

"An equal resonance, if lesser in all other statures." the shade spat. "An old friend of ours gathered a storm and dropped it on my back. But even this, a mountain on an anthill, was not enough, no. Clever stones contrived a cage no combatant could cripple."

Victor had to think about this a moment to decipher what was being said. "The blade." he deduced. "It was made to kill spirits. I see it couldn't finish you off though."

"That which is divine cannot wholly be suppressed. But a killing tool that triangular silver is not. Physical may never eradicate ethereal, only debilitate."

It was getting slightly easier for Victor to decipher what he was saying when they talked about events that he was actually present for. "I see. It wasn't meant to kill, just to banish you. But what's this 'other resonance' then?"

"Ah, now we come to your part in this tale, Victor Rosencrantz. When you fled the holy land you left a treasure trove of tomes in your abode guarded most feebly. Your one time mentor and mine raided it in search of you but found something much more dangerous."

"Marcus Stone..." Victor breathed.

"In the lore you so carelessly gathered for him he found that which men should never know. A shadow reborn in the guise of a man with the deathlessness of the old gods. Without your knowledge, none of this would have been possible."

Victor's heart skipped a beat. In his old apartment were shelves of books that were as ordinary as water in the real world. When the change happened to Silent Hill they transformed as well. Usually the words were nothing but nonsense like someone had put random sentences together but just sometimes the books became tomes of magical instruction or manuals on unholy rites. He was always careful to keep his home a secret for that very reason. Was all of this his fault for not being more careful? He thought he took all of the books that changed into something useful. Victor never dreamed that Stone would be searching for him after almost ten years of freedom. No, it couldn't be only his fault.

"They used my books against you...who is this deathless one? Stone?"

"No, a wandr'ing horror bringing his sins to the misty land. Like bread crumbs in the fable Stone left the Red Book, the Black Cup and the White Flower for this pretending charlatan to find. Bound in blood, scattered to the four winds. His Ascent, carefully crafted by Stone with your knowledge, will lead to disaster for all. To the Descent, completed."

"Oh my god...the Holy Mother ritual! He's going to try to finish it again!" Victor exclaimed.

"Doing so may spell doom for all, even I." the Fater sighed. "This pretender is close, oh so close. Twenty and one Sacraments there be. Seventeen and one he is already done."

"This is bad." Victor fretted. "Can't you do something? Stop this from happening?"

"His Descent edges closer to completion. He will enact the final Sacrament if allowed. I will never do so. In eternity I will remain at ten and one."

"Wait, what? You never finished the ceremony?" Victor gaped.

"Dull boy, this brings about the end of all things when finished. Do you see reality before you or not?"

"I...see _a_ reality." Victor said, a little lost.

"Find Stone. Separate his hands from his wrists and obtain the location of his well hidden candidate for flawed godhood. Then we will fulminate upon him, striketh with furious anger and end this parade of atrocity." the Fater snarled.

"Wait! What about Julia? And Chuck? Can you bring them here? Are they in danger?"

"Danger? Always." the Fater nodded. "But those leaves are not yet lost in the wind. I feel their heartbeats like breath on the glass. As for the Order, defoliate every last one of them from Yggdrasil's bounty."

Nothing waved his hand and the lights began to dim in the room. Victor felt the air rumbling around him and cried out, "No, wait! Where is Stone? What is the ash you left for us? How did you contact us in our dreams?"

He heard his own voice slowly drowned out rumbling of reality around him. The room shuddered and closed in so tightly that for a moment he was unable to see or breathe. Sitting up on the couch Victor was stunned to be awake and alive. His mouth was hanging open as he stared at the dark room that was oddly familiar. Sweat had broken out on his forehead and it took him a few moments to realize that he was no longer in the large chamber with the Fater. He was sitting on the couch he had been reading on in their safe house apartment like he had never left it.

Reorienting himself the knight realized that he was still soaked from the downpour of Nowhere. Confused as to whether any of that place or his meeting with Nothing even truly happened Victor swung his feet to the floor and they gratefully touched carpet instead of wet stone. Sitting forward he noticed that something was on the table that wasn't there before. It was a stack of pristine, perfectly cut paper so meticulously formed that it would have looked like a single white box to the untrained eye. He knew what they were though and here was enough to last him for years. Nearly overcome with excitement Victor could hardly breath as he looked over the stack of Oblivion sheets. Each one would support a single of the runed spells the Order had taught him and there had to be enough here to start a land war.

He would need a metal tipped pen, a cutting tool and a carrying case but this was good news indeed. Knowing that Julia was at least alive for the moment he got to work immediately crafting runes to find her.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: No Such Luck

Sleep came uneasily and unfulfilling in the hotel room they had chosen to spend the night. Light from outside crept in gradually and Julia woke several times only to drift back into a half sleep. Her muscles were stiff and her head was slightly throbbing from the whiskey which reminded her how rough yesterday was. Wiping a bit of drool from the corner of her mouth and yawning she stretched out her arms and legs as far as they would go before snapping them back towards her torso. Rubbing her eyes she yawned again and pulled the 9mm out from under her pillow.

Rubbing her temple with her free hand she opened the door of the bedroom to the living room. Chuck was fast asleep on the couch with his head back and mouth hanging open in complete dereliction of his guard duty. Shaking her head Julia meandered about the room with the gun at her side looking for intruders. While she found none she had the almost irresistible urge to fire off a round anyway just to give the Canadian a rude awakening. Eying one of the cups they drank out of she thought of a better plan.

Standing over the couch with the cup now full of water she dumped it directly down his throat. The killer sprang into a flurry of motion and coughing as Julia leaned away from the couch so she wasn't struck but his flailing limbs. Sputtering, wildly convulsing and eventually falling off the couch in a whirlwind he coughed for a minute while she looked on indifferently.

Coming up with a wet face and wild eyes Chuck looked like he had just seen his ancestors. "What the hell just happened!?"

"Wakey wakey, eggs and bac-ey." she said. "This is your alarm clock. The time is now you-shouldn't-have-been-asleep-you-idiot."

"Oh. Right." he wiped off his brow. "Whoops."

"C'mon, get your stuff. We've got to get back to the apartment."

"Already? I just woke up..."

"Unless you've got a sandwich packed in with your bullets then yes, already. As gross as it is I'm really jonsing for one of those MREs with nothing but booze going down the hatch in the last day or so."

Chuck muttered something about delicious but obliged her and started to pack up. Slipping on the same sweaty socks she'd been wearing the day before Julia sighed to herself. She always knew that one day she'd be right back here, back in this town, mixed up in something insane and just wanting to go home and have a bath. It was true though that even though she was constantly in danger and wanted everyone to be safe that there was something exciting about being here again. She had a good job, a good man, put in time at the gym learning to box and to choke a grown man unconscious but it was all very safe. While she could never admit it to Victor a small part of her wanted to be here more often.

After Chuck relieved himself they headed towards the exit of the old hotel. "You think Victor will be looking for us?" the Canadian asked as he hefted the knight's large shield. Julia kept his large barreled shotgun slung over her shoulder for the time being and sincerely hoped she wouldn't have to use it any time soon.

"No." she shook her head. "He said to go back to the apartment and stay put if we got separated. That's exactly what we're going to do. I wouldn't be surprised if he was there already, polishing his sword or something."

"Heh. Euphemism." Chuck said. "I'm sure he's fine with that armor on."

"You think that'll stop Pyramid Head?"

"Your boy knows what he's doing. A week ago I would have assumed he was dead already but after seeing how well he knows his way around...dude's been at this a long time. I'm sure he's fine."

"I-" she started as they made their way down the grand staircase and Julia realized that they were not alone in the foyer. A girl was rummaging through one of the desks and her head jerked up as they stopped halfway down to the ground floor. She had the surprised look of someone who was caught in the middle of stealing something. Wearing salmon colored jeans and a beige top the thin blonde girl looked like a thousand others Julia associated with malls and cafes. She could have just stepped out of a store that sold flimsy scarves for hundreds of dollars and thus it only accented how out of place she looked standing in the ruined hotel with them.

The three of them did not move for a few seconds. With the surprise gone there was something else in the girl's eyes that Julia didn't like. It was a barely controlled hysteria, a feral gleam just on the brink of total meltdown. The pilgrim could not even think of anything to say but Chuck cleared his throat. "Um, hi." he said.

The girl turned towards them and reached for something. Julia didn't see the gun until it was pointed at them and it did not occur to her that they might be in danger. "Whoa!" she blurted and hastily brought the shotgun up to return the lethal threat of violence. The skittish blonde swung the barrel of a giant revolver back and forth at the both of them and Julia realized from the way she was holding the gun that she likely had never even fired one before.

Chuck acted and dropped himself in front of her. Going to a knee he set the shield down on the steps and used it to cover himself and most of her. Crouching just slightly to get most of her bulk behind the round disc she kept the shotgun on the girl. "All right, drop it." Julia ordered.

"Um..." the girl squeaked uncertainly and she looked more scared now than anything. "No...you drop it."

"Don't be stupid." Julia chided her. "We're behind a bulletproof shield and you're out in the open. From this range the shotgun will turn you to bitch-paste and you look like you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with that thing."

"You're with _him_ aren't you?" the girl said disgustedly.

"Uh...there's a lot of people that you could call a him. You'll have to be more specific."

"Breannan Murphy. You know who I'm talking about."

"Never heard of him."

"I don't believe you!" she said angrily. With Victor's shield they weren't in much danger and she really didn't want to shoot the poor girl over a misunderstanding. Trying a different tactic Julia asked, "What's your name? I'm Julia."

Taken aback by the sudden change in conversation the girl stammered, "Buh- Veronica."

"This is my friend Chuck here, Veronica. We don't want to hurt you. There's enough things around that want to do that already."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Haven't you seen the monsters here?"

"Why would there be monsters?" the blonde girl wrinkled her nose. "This place has been abandoned for years."

Julia looked down at Chuck who could only shrug. "What brings you here in the first place then?" she asked.

"I'm...looking for Breannan Murphy." the girl said almost hesitantly. "He stole my family's legacy but...I don't know, he's supposed to have died in 1931. I don't even know what I'm looking for..."

Relaxing Julia stood up and put her hands up. "See? We're not your enemies. Put the gun down and let's just talk."

Quivering and looking at the two of them as if she was expecting a trap Veronica finally put the revolver down on the desk she was previously looting. "Wouldn't do me any good anyway." she said dejectedly. "This thing is only good for killing ghosts."

Standing up Chuck let the shield move to the side and Julia took a step down towards their unstable new acquaintance. She had only gone two steps when the blonde cried in a shrill tone, "Don't come any closer!"

"Hey, calm down I'm only-"

"Back off!" she said and jumped towards the revolver. Julia jerked back and brought the shotgun up to her shoulder in case the crazy girl planned on trying to shoot her.

"Whoa, what the hell!?" the pilgrim asked angrily. "We aren't trying to-"

"Just leave me alone!" Veronica cried and suddenly bolted for the door without her gun.

"Hey, wait!" Julia called but the skinny girl was surprisingly fast as she yanked the front door open and disappeared into the mist. Standing there in confusion the dark haired pilgrim looked back to Chuck who was just as confused as she was.

"Uh...okay..." he said.

"Did we...do something wrong?" she asked.

"Nope. It's a shame though."

"What is?"

"That we didn't get her to come with us." he explained.

"Why the hell would we want her coming with us? Bitch almost shot us for no reason."

"Yeah but..."

"But what?"

"She was kinda cute." he shrugged.

Julia rolled her eyes so hard they almost thumped against her skull. "Men. One frickin' track."

"So sue me."

Setting her shotgun down on the table Julia picked up the hand cannon the girl was holding. "Look at this thing. .357 Magnum? Probably would have broken her wrist the way she was holding it."

Rolling the barrel open she found that it was indeed loaded and could have been deadly if used on them. Tilting the gun up she shook the bullets out only to find something odd. Five of them were very, very shiny, almost polished to a mirror luster. The sixth bullet wasn't a bullet at all but appeared to have a hard glass tip. It was fit with a proper cartridge like the others but had some minute amount of red liquid in the hollow tip instead of being solid metal. She wondered if it would even fire or simply explode in the barrel.

"Check this out." she called to Chuck. "Have you seen a glass tip before?"

Holding up the glass bullet to the feeble light the Canadian shook his head. "Never seen anything like this. Look at the shell, no markings or stamps, like they were custom made."

"Hmm."

"Why are they so shiny?"

"No idea."

"Didn't she say it was for killing ghosts? Is that why this one's glass?"

"Maybe. Haven't met a ghost yet though. Don't know if a gun would be useful against one."

"We should take it with us, just in case." he advised. "I'm sure Victor will want to look at it."

"Good idea. I feel bad though." she said as the tucked the bullets into her pocket.

"Why?"

"Even though it wasn't our fault that freaked out girl doesn't even have a weapon. She kinda reminded me of myself when I was first here."

"Yeah but look at you now. You turned out okay."

"In a manner of speaking. Come on. Let's get going."

Heading for the door they stepped out onto the morning streets. The mist seemed lighter, less oppressive than the day before but that might have just been her imagination. Looking around at the empty pavement she tried to get her bearing on where exactly they would be going.

"So...that way?" she pointed the way they had come.

"I guess. Maybe we should take a different street? In case those guys are expecting us again?"

"Yeah, just to be safe."

They started trudging south instead of east. Hopefully the mercenaries were either dead, too scared to follow them or both. There was no helping it though, she had to find Victor and make sure he was okay. She could only hope that he knew she was still alive and he didn't do anything stupid.

* * *

"Oh Lily Bell, oh Lily Bell, though I may have done some foolin', this is why I never fell..." he hummed to himself. The near eternally dark sky and thick clouds beat a constant patter everywhere around the solitary figure. Far from the tower that scraped the clouds he sat at the very top of a crumbling castle. Behind him a great forge bellowed itself automatically under the large canvas which kept the ever present rain at bay. Wrought of adamantium and powered by unobtanium the leviathan-shaped forge could create almost anything the user put their mind to.

It was also the location of the sharpest object in that particular reality, period. A fragment of creation itself the Sharpening Stone set into the end of the forge wasn't actually even sharp. It simply unmade whatever passed near it's edge no matter how hard the substance was. Even the forge it was set into, otherwise unbreakable, could not withstand the Stone itself. Though it required no easy trek to get to it was the only thing that would faithfully cut the objects he was shaping. Of course, he had to be careful when working with the Sharpening Stone. There was no substance safe from its event horizon, even the flesh of the one who was in all intents and purposes the god of this plane.

Sitting cross legged in front of the forge he continued to hum to himself as he shaved minute pieces from the great claws at his side. There was no naturally occurring material better suited for making blades than the bones of a dragon and he had some serious restocking to do. His knife harness of adamantium kunai blades had been confiscated by the hated Order though he doubted they had any idea how precious the metal was. It wasn't possible to get enough of the ore to make more of them and he was due for a change in weaponry anyway.

"_Master._" came the telepathic voice in his head from miles away.

"What is it?" Nothing asked out loud.

"_The Lightening approacheth. We do not have sufficient units to restore you to full lethality._"

"Make do, Tower." The shade replied as he concentrated on shaving fractions of edges from the bone he was working on. "We don't have time to wait. The resonance draws closer and closer to completion of the Descent every minute."

There was a pause that indicated the other entity was hesitant to speak again. "_About the...contingency you have planned..._"

"There will be no more discussion on the matter." Nothing instructed as he peeled a layer off the section of dragon claw to form a foot long, three sided dagger not unlike a bayonet. While a traditionally flat edged weapon could cause a deep but not fatal injury this one was guaranteed to leave a grievous, gaping wound with significant blood loss potential.

Pulling the blade away from the Sharpening Stone he examined the edges of the new bone knife. With a proper grip and some decorative carvings it would be fit to carry into battle against Marcus Stone and his Order. While focused on his task the Fater was aware of his servant's silent anxiety. "Speak then." he commanded.

"_Master, this mortal is not the proper vessel for such a monumental task. He has not the will, the fortitude, the passion for even a half-Descent. He has already left the misty land once. His fascination with his female companion also does not bode well for his candidacy._"

"The old magic runs strong in Victor Rosencrantz." Nothing replied as he selected another three foot claw to begin stripping down. "He is of Silent Hill as surely as I. The signs are all in place, his blood lust, his greed for forbidden knowledge, his oneness with the Darkness. His departure was most unexpected but he remains the best choice."

"_And his unwillingness to do what is necessary to complete the Descent, even when furnished with the requisite tools?_"

"Let him ponder the complexities of Nowhere. Let him imagine the wonders I can create with a wave of my hand. Make no mistake Tower, the seeds of his Descent have already been planted. All that is left to do is to break down his moral objections. I was hoping he would...better absorb the savage nature of his birthplace sooner than later but we're running out of options."

"_He does not respect what you do._"

"He will understand in time that I am the only thing standing in between the world of men and true darkness." Nothing promised.

"_And if he doesn't?_"

Blowing off a bit of scale dust from the bone Nothing said, "Then I will find a suitable replacement."

"_Charles Taylor?_"

"No." Nothing shook his head despite being alone in the room. "His mind is too fractured, too frail. Already it has broken once but even whole again it is weaker than before. My champion must be not only be dedicated to the task but possess a mind as deadly as anything I could forge. That is the keenest blade of all."

"_Who then?_"

"Someone born of the misty land, someone who craves it more than she realizes..."

"_Julia Stormson?_"

"Already once she survived that which would have broken most people. No frilly lass simply walks into the misty land and walks out in one piece without a fire in her heart. Maybe I can get her to view herself as a hero, a protector. It matters not why she chooses to accept this burden, only that she does. Perhaps a glimpse of Nowhere would suffice to alight her curiosity."

"_You intend to draw her here?_"

"If the circumstance is right. We will see how well she dances on my strings. In the mean time, pull every believer we have left for the Lightening. I intend to pay the Order back a thousandfold for daring to imprison me."

The rain pattered around him and the shade continued to work more weapons out of the bones around him. They would be necessary, oh yes, and he dreamed of nothing else but burying them in Marcus Stone's throat. He would return to Earth soon and when he did, a reckoning would follow.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Fright Night

Walking briskly in the cold air Chuck kept the large shield at the ready. There was no telling what could be waiting for them in the mists and for a haunted, deserted town there certainly appeared to be quite a bit of foot traffic these days. They'd been heading away from the water until they reached the end of the asphalt where the trees took over. It was the absolute south end of the town and they would walk along this path east to get back to where they started from.

"You're sure we'll run into something if we go this way?" Chuck asked.

"I'm sure. I can't say when but I generally know the area. Wish I'd memorized the streets like Victor suggested when we were living on the outside. Seemed like a silly idea at the time but then here we are, huh?" his companion answered.

"Did you have a map of the town?"

"Just Victor's mental one. Didn't figure that I would need it following him around. Give him a piece of paper and he could sketch out for you the whole place."

"That might have been a good idea to do like, before we came here." the Canadian pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah, hindsight's 20/20. I didn't hear you mention anything this whole time."

They pressed on. Chuck remembered little of the town's layout besides the major sections on both sides of the lake. Other than the buildings he entered in hopes of finding his imaginary friend his recollection of the rest of the town's structures was hazy at best. He thought back then that he was wandering randomly from place to place in search of Troy but in reality he was led like a dumb animal by the Dark Man to the places he needed to go. It was likely that without the assistance of the dead cultist he would have never left this place alive.

They'd been walking for what had to have been the better part of an hour when they found themselves at the opposite end of the tree line. Stopping as she realized they gone past where they should have stopped Julia looked behind them in confusion.

"This...doesn't make sense. We should have passed by Nathan by now, right?"

"Should have." Chuck agreed. "That doesn't mean much here though."

"Maybe we just have to-"

Interrupting her from far off in the distance was a long blaring horn that rolled in from across the water. Chuck's heart sank as their situation went from bad to worse. Not only were they lost but things were about to get much worse in the very immediate future.

"Bloody hell..." Julia cursed as the light of day began to darken and the sound of grating realities filled the air. The killer held the wide shield a little tighter to him in anticipation for whatever was about to happen. He felt at least a litter safer with it on but still wanted to be somewhere less tactically vulnerable than out on the open streets. The ground shook under his feet as the light faded completely and Chuck did his best to shake out his jitters. He'd seen this nightmare before and theoretically should have been used to the ghost town. While that was somewhat accurate of its semi-peaceful, normal version its true form was a different story altogether. In that place, soon to be all around them, the town stopped playing by the rules.

"Stay calm." Julia advised in the dark.

"Yeah friggin' right." he said while fumbling for a pocket light.

The dark haired woman found the flashlight on his shotgun first just before he clipped a forward facing one onto his vest. The powerful beams lit up what the ordinary streets and buildings had become but would draw monsters to them like a beacon. It could not be helped if they wanted to navigate the rusted grating the pavement had turned into with an endless void just a thin layer of metal below.

"What do we do now?" he asked.

"Find somewhere to at least put our backs to a wall. I don't like standing out here waiting for something to attack us."

"Amen to that. Let's head towards that burned down building."

Treading carefully on the chain link ground which had an unnerving, ever so slight amount of give they headed towards what appeared to have been a mansion consumed by flame. Chuck was expecting something bad to happen and he did not have to wait long for it to come crashing down. It was not nearby but far and above them that he heard a sound he couldn't quite identify. The sound repeated again, closer, but he still could not recognize it. Looking up at the pitch black sky he doubted he could see anything not directly in the path of one of their lights.

"What the hell is that?" Julia asked.

"I'm not sure...can't be good though. We should hurry."

They resumed their short walk to the charred structure at a light jog but then the sound came again much, much closer. It sounded like a pair of wings but it was too big and too slow to be a flying creature. A moment later something landed up ahead so hard that Chuck could feel it shake the grating under his feet. Julia pointed her light up at the disturbance at nearly the same time he did and the two of them revealed a skittering horror from the darkness.

Perching on the largest piece of the burnt mansion still standing was a giant, airborne monstrosity. Despite having a pair of ten foot, shimmering black wings covered in feathers it resembled a snake with flesh colored scales. It didn't seem to have a traditional head but instead had a set of nostrils at the end of its thick neck. It glared at them with red, lidless eyes larger than a fist from up on the ruins.

"Holy fu-" Chuck started to say but its face split open in four pieces and blasted them with a high pitched wail that had the Canadian bringing up his shield in a knee jerk reaction. Almost stunned by the physicality of the roar Chuck barely had the wits about him to dive out of the way when the beast came swooping towards them from above. Dodging it just in time the creature passed by with the force and mass of a bus. Rolling painfully against the rusty grating in a dazed tumble he shook his head and scrambled back to his feet. Julia was on one knee pointing the shotgun at the sky but the monster was already winging far into the sky out of range.

"Not good!" she shouted without taking her eyes off the darkness above.

"We gotta get out of here!" Chuck yelled back. Sweeping his light around he saw a brick building across from the burned one. The front had morphed to resemble a screaming face with windows for frightened eyes and a twisted door for the mouth. Not particularly excited to go inside it was better than being out on the street, at least for the moment. "This way, come on!" he yelled and made a dash for the entrance.

Throwing open the door and heading in shield first the killer found no immediate danger and turned to wave Julia onward. The compact woman sprinted towards him and just after she skidded into the building he slammed the heavy door shut behind her. Panting inside the threshold Chuck looked around at their new surroundings. Everything was made from wood, the carpet, the furniture, even the lamps that hung from the ceiling. It was like someone had taken an ordinary building and had transformed everything inside to lumber.

Outside the creature could be heard cawing far above. Julia caught her breath and motioned for them to head deeper into the face building. "You ever see anything like that before?" she whispered.

"I've never even heard of anything like that before." Chuck scoffed as loud as he dared. "It looked like a butterfly had sex with a mutant earthworm."

"Ugh. Visual." she shut her eyes and grimaced in mental pain. "Do you think we can kill it?"

"Hell if I know." Chuck shrugged. "Let's try shooting it in the face. If that doesn't work we'll come up with a plan B."

"A half baked plan is better than just running away in random directions. Should be somewhat safe in here though, right?"

"Yeah." he nodded. "I don't see how something that big could get through the doo-"

The sound of a wrecking ball smashing into the front of the building stole the thought from his mind as entire floors were obliterated just feet away. He looked on, stupefied by the total destruction in front of him as the door they had come in and a good portion of the structure above it was simply crushed from above. A cloud of dust and debris rushed out of the chaos ahead and Chuck just barely got the shield up in time to block it. A hundred flecks of dirt, wood and glass went _ptnkptnkptnk_! off his protective circle. Julia grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from the blast radius and hopefully to somewhere safer. They came to what looked like a dead end but his companion darted into an obscured stairwell and he followed without hesitation.

Charging up the stairs they came out into a hall on the second floor and could see most of the damage done to the building. The front third of it had been hit by a meteor that rent everything in its path from the roof to the ground. Their flashlights shone on the tips of glittering wings as the creature a floor below attempted to lift itself back into the air. Chuck was right about it not fitting through the door so apparently the monster decided to dive bomb the entire building with its bulk.

Julia kept going and disappeared around the corner off the stairwell to what he assumed was more stairs. Just then the monster regained its composure and its neck-head came up to eye level with him. Chuck's pocket light shone directly into its menacing, red orbs and he gulped as the creature seemed to drink in the sight of him. His mind screamed at his legs to move but he stood there in paralyzing indecision. The monster lifted its head high into the air and leapt forward to drop its long neck on what was left of the building like a rope slapping water.

The blow threw the Canadian to all fours as the monster destroyed a long line into the very center of the already shaky building. He was at least still relatively safe and he attempted to back up to the stairwell to avoid falling down to the ground floor with the beast. Underneath him though the frail wood groaned with his weight and its new found frailty.

"Oh goddammit." he said and the rest of the hallway collapsed with him riding on top of it. He lost vision as he tumbled headfirst into a pile of rubble that was as unforgiving as it was dark. Landing awkwardly and painfully on his upper body he hit his head on something hard and most disagreeable.

Thoroughly dazed he saw doubles of the immediate area by his face as he blinked under a pile of lumber. Something was running down the side of his cheek and his head began to thump from the hard crash it had taken. The vest thankfully absorbed some of the body trauma but his legs and arms were going to be bruised for days if he didn't get eaten first. His aching body protested as he attempted to pull himself from the rubble pile and determine whether or not the worm thing was waiting to devour him.

As he righted himself Chuck unwittingly gave the monster his exact location as got to his feet in front of it. Had he waited under the pile he might have been able to hide but the beast was standing in front of the building waiting for him. Pocket light shining on its pale forehead and hateful eyes the monster's face split open again to scream so loud the killer swore he felt his ear drums split. Rushing forward at him the beast slammed into Chuck's raised shield and drove him back onto the pile he'd just crawled out from under with battering ram force. Rocked for the second time in under a minute and with the wind knocked out of him he could do nothing but hold onto the shield for dear life.

The creature's rancid breath filled the air and every lungful Chuck fought for almost made him gag. It reeked of garbage and maggots even as its terrible teeth scraped against the shield just a thin inch away. The worm thing was crushing the air out of him even if it wasn't getting to use its four piece mouth to eat him and for the first time since his last visit to Silent Hill Chuck knew he was going to die. He had hoped for something more glorious than being smeared into rubble by a flying worm but with it cutting off his air it was only a matter of time before he lost consciousness.

He felt rather than heard something go off nearby and for a moment the pressure on him stopped. It happened again and the creature let out another howl that had him squinting in pain. Thrashing wildly it incredibly backed up away from him instead of finishing the job. Chest rapidly heaving to get air Chuck kept the shield high as the floor rumbled with the monster's spasms. Its great wings beat down on him and the killer risked a peek over the top of his protection. Julia's light was pointing down on it as it whipped its head back and forth before taking to the air.

Waiting until the creature's beating faded into the nightmare sky Chuck then allowed himself to collapse on the ground. Sliding the shield off of himself and curling into the fetal position he got his wind back as quickly as he could. Each ragged breath hurt his chest and he was worried that perhaps he'd suffered a broken rib. His whole body was well bruised, arms useless, knees pained and head throbbing but on the bright side at least he was alive.

"Chuck?" Julia called down.

"Ugh...I...I'm here!" he said as loud as he could.

"Are you all right?"

"No dude...no I'm not." he called up. He heard movement above and it took her a minute to pick her way down to him. He felt like he should have been on his feet and ready to go but he simply wasn't. It was slightly embarrassing when she shined her light on him as he lay on the ground.

"Holy hell." she remarked. "You okay?"

"I'll be fine. Just let me lay here a minute."

Setting down the shotgun she bent down to tend to him. Using her shirt she wiped the side of his face and Chuck closed his eyes for a moment. "Hey, don't you fall asleep on me." she warned and snapped her fingers.

"Wha? No I'm okay..."

"Really? You've got a nasty gash on your head and you're bleeding all over yourself."

"Oh...is that what that was?"

"Can you walk?"

"Ugh, rather not...all right, all right, help me up."

Leaning on her heavily for support the Canadian made it to his shaky feet. Stooping to retrieve the shield he slid in on and angled it to inspect the front. There were a few scuffs but the metal had little evidence of the trauma it had just warded off. "This thing is the only reason I'm not dead." he commented. "Well, that and you scaring it off. What did you do?"

"Gave him something to think about." Julia grinned in the low light. "Shot it right in the eye. Plan A worked pretty well."

"Huh." Chuck mused. "Damn thing still flew away under its own power. Wouldn't have minded burying that fucker."

"One thing you can say about the monsters around here, they can take a beating." Julia said. "Ready to get out of here? Or at least away from here?"

"Yeah."

Shuffling forward out of the ruined building they moved along the darkened grating up what passed for a street. Going several blocks they passed by bizarre business fronts. Shining his light on one of them Chuck illuminated a signboard that read 'Easy Exit Noosery – When You Just Want It Over With'. Inside were many displays featuring a bevy of nooses with complicated knots and high quality rope.

"Check it out."

"Yikes, that's grim." Julia said.

"I know it's in bad taste but some of those ropes look kind of tight."

"If this is your attempt at humor Chuck I don't have the energy to smack you."

"Eh?"

"Never mind. Let's keep going."

Keeping a mindful eye on the darkness ahead of them Chuck was the first to notice the anomaly after they'd gone another several blocks. It was a little blur of white against the utter gloom that was partially obscured by what passed for buildings in this version of the town.

"Hold on. Look at that up there." he said.

"Where?"

"Right there." he pointed. "What is that?"

"Uh...I have no idea. It's not a light...I can't tell what it is."

"Let's try getting a better look."

Moving closer to the object another block didn't help identify what it was. They simply got a better view of it but the blur didn't seem to get any bigger no matter what they did. Like a careless drop of white paint on a black canvas it was notable for no other reason than that it did not fit in with everything else.

"It's a...a...damn I have no idea." Julia said. "It's not glowing or anything...it's just like...sitting there."

"I can't even tell how far away it is." Chuck said as he squinted at it.

"It's almost like a...blank spot." the woman said. "Doesn't it look kind of 2-D? Like it's super flat?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah." the Canadian scratched his chin. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Unable to shake the feeling that something was very wrong about that they decided to head in the opposite direction of it. Checking over his shoulder Chuck saw that it did not get any smaller even as they headed at least fifteen minutes away from it in the darkness. He was disturbed by what the white spot was but just then the town began to sunder itself. Entire pieces of the black sky fractured to reveal gray underneath and further disintegrated into floating motes. The caged streets stretched, peeled and cracked to reshape into familiar concrete and twisted buildings hurried to shrink back to more traditional square ones. They stayed where they were and in less than a couple minutes the entire town had reshaped itself back into the sleepy, almost normal variant. The darkness melted away into nothingness and just like that they were back in the real world.

"Never going to get used to that." Julia said.

"Can't imagine how you would." Chuck shook his head.

"Victor did, I bet. We should find him now."

"Lead the way. I need a MRE in the worst way." Chuck said as he trudged ahead. "That and a vacation."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: A Little R&R

Find themselves in semi-familiar territory at last Julia recognized some of the street names she had tried to commit to memory. It was a huge mistake not taking Victor's advice and memorizing the town's layout while they were away in the real world. It seemed more and more though that it was her home on the outside that was the dream and this place was where she felt alive. All of the things that seemed to matter, being late to work, fixing a dent in her car, missing a show on TV, these things never truly meant a thing. Here though everything mattered, everything was truly important. Survival had a way of making clear how little all else other than taking your next breath was.

As they were walking something caught Chuck's eye and he stopped mid-stride. Instantly alert Julia brought the shotgun up to her shoulder almost involuntarily. "What?"

"There's a comic book store over there." he said reverently.

Sighing she straightened herself out and slapped the Canadian on the back of the head. "Hey!" he protested.

"Freak me out like that again and I'm going to shoot you on general principle." she warned.

"Whatever. Can we stop in there for a sec?"

"What!? No! I haven't eaten since yesterday, I'm tired, I'm hurt, you look like you were beaten with a bat for an hour and I still have to pee."

"I told you to go in the bushes." he said while turning his palms up at her.

"I'm not an animal! And what if some gross Silent Hill thing is waiting in the grass for me to drop my pants so it can jump into my genitals?"

"Oh God, that's disgusting." he made a face.

"Yeah, exactly. Think about that the next time you take a leak on the side of a building. We're close anyway, I know it."

They spotted the building with their gear coming out of the mist some four blocks away and Julia nearly cheered when she saw it. Committing the address to memory she wanted to rush in but Chuck made them take a more cautious pace. She was anxious to know if Victor was there safe and sound but he was right. They tip toed their way in and headed to the rear staircase which as far as she knew was the only way to get to the top of the building now. Taking the lead Chuck kept the shield up and blocking most of the hall way with its size.

Stopping at apartment 45 Chuck motioned her to look onward. The strange, alien symbols of the Order had been carved into the door jam from top to bottom. The only time Julia had seen these before was on Victor's old apartment but she couldn't be sure that it was his handiwork.

"What do we do?" Chuck whispered.

"We have to check it out." she said softly. "We need to know if they're here."

With grim determination Chuck nodded and braced himself with the shield. Wiping a few beads of sweat from above her eyebrow Julia tensed up for the considerable kick of the buckshot and nodded. Taking in a breath Chuck twisted the knob and kicked the door open. Bounding shield first into the living room the killer was ready for a fight. She followed right behind him and was prepared to shoot whatever moved.

Reclining on the couch was Victor, whole, injured, alive. He looked rather unconcerned that they had just burst in on him and had been reading a book. Chuck breathed a large sigh of relief and Julia dropped the shotgun to the side. Her man had just gotten to his feet when she pounced on him and attempted to hug him to death.

"Oh my God, you're okay." she said and didn't realize for a few moments that she was crying. Shushing her soothingly and stroking the back of her head Victor calmed her surge of emotions. Letting him go for a moment she kissed him savagely without concern to her wet face and hugged him again. Behind her Chuck closed the door and dumped himself into a chair.

"Are you all right?" Victor asked when she had decided it was getting weird with someone else in the room and let him go.

"I've been better. You look..." she trailed off. He was sporting numerous bruises on his face and arms as well as a number of minor scabs and cuts but he'd never looked better. "...great." she finished.

"Heh. And you. You're going to have a few more scars." he commented. Sliding off of him Julia sat very close by and held his hand tightly in hers as she leaned back on the oh-so-soft couch.

"Chuck. Are you well?" Victor asked the other man.

"Worm. Thing. Chest. Hurt." Chuck said and had his eyes closed. "Your shield saved my life though. Thanks for the loaner."

"You're welcome...and I feel I owe you an apology." he said and Julia raised an eyebrow. Chuck opened his eyes as Victor continued. "I assumed you were merely a tool of Nothing waiting to betray us the moment he asked. But I see now that you are your own person. While your crimes are great I believe that you're truly trying to repent for them. I'm sorry for the way I treated you."

"Huh." Chuck said and Julia could hardly believe her ears. Victor rarely apologized so thoroughly to anyone about anything.

"Wow. You'd better take that and put it in your pocket, Chuck. You aren't going to get another apology like that in this lifetime."

"Very funny." Victor said disdainfully.

"Speaking of funny, you looked awfully calm when we busted in on you." Julia noted.

"Ah...yes..."

"Wait, I know that tone. You were expecting us weren't you?" she queried.

He smiled slightly and she knew she had him. "How?"

"There's been some...developments." he said almost reluctantly. "Why don't the two of you get something to eat and rest? I think we're all going to need a few days off before going anywhere."

Much needed food was followed by much needed rest. Victor offered to stay awake to keep watch but it was largely unnecessary now that he had protected the room against Silent Hill's monsters. Julia demanded he cuddle her to sleep and when she woke up in the early evening she could hear Chuck's snoring from two rooms away. It had been a long last few days and she was glad to be alive in more ways than one. Despite the protests and objections to do anything with someone just a few walls away she managed to make Victor give her what she wanted. Even though it was not the best place he made love to her as quietly as possible as she bit onto the blanket to keep her moans muffled. Much later and thoroughly satisfied she fell asleep again and did not wake until almost morning the next day.

It was past dawn when the snoring coming from the second bedroom stopped and a very bleary eyed Canadian dragged himself to the bathroom. An hour and two MREs later they were gathered in the living room where Victor was busy tracing runes on the coffee table.

"Where did you get those? I thought they took all of them." Julia said about the stack of white paper he was using.

"I procured a few more." he answered. "From a friend."

"Friend?"

Sighing Victor put down his metal tipped, medieval looking pen. "While you were gone I had a visitor. Well, actually I was the visitor."

"The Dark Man?" Chuck asked.

"Yes." Victor nodded. "But that's not all. There's a bigger problem that just him."

Leaning back on the couch the knight told them the tale of his journey to Nowhere and all the wondrous sights he'd seen in his brief time there. Julia could not even begin to imagine such a place or how their absent ally had constructed it. Victor spoke like a man possessed and neither her nor Chuck interrupted his story until he concluded it with how he'd spent the time since leaving Nowhere tracing tracker runes that told him his companions were already on their way back.

No one spoke for a minute or so after he was done and simply digested what they had been told. The most interesting part to Julia was the power the Dark Man wielded in his own realm, if that's what it was. She wasn't convinced he was telling Victor the full truth but she supposed that it didn't much matter at the moment.

"So let me get this straight." Chuck said. "The Dark Man has a whole...world basically to himself?"

"I don't know about 'to himself' but it seemed to me like he was much stronger there than here. That in itself is a disturbing thought because as far as I know he's unstoppable in Silent Hill." Victor answered.

"Why does he even bother coming here then?" Julia asked.

"I'm not sure to be honest." Victor shrugged. "One would think that he would be happy to rule over Nowhere with a bloody fist. But I think that his hatred for the Order keeps him coming back here."

"But how...how does that even work? From what it sounds like you were there while we were getting attacked in the other Silent Hill."

"Again, I can't answer. He kept telling me that Nowhere was beyond my understanding...I think he may for once have been right. For all my time here I can't comprehend how he was able to do what he did or how he continues to."

"So this other guy is the one that's screwing everything up? Why we're all back here?" Chuck asked.

"Well, yes and no. Our true enemy is Marcus Stone, the head of the Order. He's the ones who trained me years ago."

"Trained you to do those weird symbols?"

"Yes. I thought I was free of him but it would seem he hasn't forgotten me. Worse he's set someone else along a path that might lead to something even worse than Nowhere."

"What do you mean?" Julia asked.

"This 'other resonance' he spoke of. I'm not sure exactly how it would affect him but if this other person completes the Descent then we're all in trouble. I don't mean the three of us but planet Earth in general."

"What is it, exactly?"

"Everyone trained by the Order knows about the Descent. It's supposed to be a fairy tale, a myth. I never thought it would be anything real." Victor shook his head. Closing his eyes he recited, "The First Sign, and God sayeth, at the time of fullness, cleanse the world with my rage. Gather forth the White Oil, the Black Cup and the Blood of Ten Sinners. Prepare for the Ritual of the Holy Assumption.

"The Second Sign, And God sayeth, offer the Blood of the Ten Sinners and the White Oil. Be then released from the bonds of flesh and gain the Power of Heaven."

"And...what the hell does all of that mean?" Julia said irritably.

Opening his eyes Victor explained, "The White Oil is White Claudia, the drug made from the flowers that the Order uses to get rich. It was used for thousands of years before that for holy rituals by the natives from around here. The Black Cup is a chalice made of pure obsidian. Together with the flower and a book written in human blood you have everything you need for the 21 Sacraments...well, almost."

"What else do you need?" Chuck asked with rapt attention.

"Weren't you two listening? The 'blood of ten sinners'." Victor answered. "Literally, I think."

"And the last part, 'released from the bonds of flesh'," Julia said, "is that literal too?"

"Well, look at Nothing." Victor said. "He's been dead for who knows how long but that hasn't slowed him down. If anything it has made him stronger."

"So he killed ten people and turned himself into...whatever he is now? And built this fantasy land along the way?" Julia asked incredulously.

"In so many words, yes. Though I think he's killed a lot more than ten before and since."

"And now someone else is trying to do the same thing?"

"Yes, and they're very close to finishing it."

"Why now?" Chuck interrupted. "If this crazy cult of yours is so hellbent on their rituals then why haven't then done this before?"

"You don't understand, Chuck." Victor said sadly. " The Book, the Cup, the ritual itself, they were supposed to be myths, stories for the Order to scare children with. No one, not even Stone would have dreamed that they really existed somewhere in Silent Hill. Maybe they didn't until recently. Maybe they always have, I don't know. But I do know that if we don't stop them that they will complete the Sacraments for sure."

Julia had to think to take all of this in. Even for Silent Hill this was amazing. The thought that someone could make an entire reality through the bizarre rituals of her home town...if someone had told her a few years ago she'd be here listening to this and believing every word of it she would have just laughed before calling the men in white coats.

"What do we do then?" Chuck asked. "What can we do?"

"We have to find Marcus Stone and kill him." Victor said solemnly. "I don't like it any more than you but that man is a menace. He'll use his pawn to complete the Descent the way the Order has always wanted."

"And now they're finally close to it." Julia said.

"Yes. Nothing showed them that the Sacraments were real. They're spent the last twenty years searching for items they need and he's spent the last twenty years killing them the moment he found them. In a way he's been a necessary evil."

"I don't know if I can just go kill some guy." Chuck shuddered. "It's...not me."

"Me either." Julia agreed.

"We can capture him alive then, and turn him over to Nothing." Victor suggested. "But we have to take him out of the equation one way or the other. Once we find him, we can find his sacrament-maker and stop this madness. Then we can all go home."

"Yeah..." Chuck said unenthusiastically.

"We have to act. There's no one else who will and certainly no one that even knows the danger we're all in."

"Oh, speaking of which." Julia was reminded. "Did you show him the gun?"

"Ah, right." Chuck said and got up to retrieve the strange pistol they had taken from the unstable blond girl. The Canadian handed it to Victor who peered at it curiously. "Got this off a insane chick who pointed it at us a couple of times."

"Big gun. So what?" the knight wondered.

"Check out the ammo."

"Uh...how?"

"Dang it." she shook her head and rolled out the barrel for him. Shaking the bullets into his outstretched hands Victor peered closely at them.

"These are...silver bullets." he noted.

"That would explain the shine." Chuck said.

"And this." Victor held the glass one up to the light. "This is...no, it can't be."

"What?"

"It looks like...Aglaophotis." he said in disbelief.

"Which is...?"

"A very, very rare substance made from desert flowers. It's supposed to 'dispel evil' though I've only ever read about it. You see the tiny flecks of black? That's sediment from below the sand." he explained.

"What do you think it's doing in a bullet?" Julia wondered.

"The girl said the gun was for killing ghosts." Chuck chimed in.

"Ah...I see." Victor said as he came to some unknown conclusion. "The bullets, like the silver sword we found, are made to harm or at least temporarily put down a ghost."

"Like the Dark Man?" Chuck asked.

"Exactly. And if they'll work on him, they'll work on whoever has been trying to complete the Sacraments, too." he concluded.

"So this was a good find?" Julia said tentatively.

"This is the most precious weapon we have." Victor nodded. "Whoever you took this weapon from knew what they were doing when it came to Silent Hill. And the Aglaophotis...I don't know if it will really kill a ghost but this would be the first thing I'd try with."

"Hmm...so if your pal decides to turn on us..." Julia reasoned.

"He won't." Chuck asserted.

"If he does, we can put him down, for good." Victor said as he handed the gun back to Julia. "He doesn't need to know about it, agreed?"

Chuck threw his hands up. "You won't need to use it on him. Be more worried about the other guy."

"I am." Victor conceded. "But we can't rule out the possibility that we might need this against Nothing."

The sat for a little while as each of them reflected on the new developments so far. It reminded Julia of one of the few unanswered questions so far. "Vic, do you still have that ash?"

"Yes, of course, why?"

"Did you find out what it was? How it works?"

"Ah, no. I didn't get the chance to get a straight answer from Nothing. To say he talks in circles in an understatement. And I was a little distracted by Nowhere in general."

"Dang."

"We're going to need it though." he said. "The original plan to investigate the Order's holdings across the water remains. If that ash breaks down runes then we're going to have to use it just to get in the front door."

"Can't you test it on the ones you make?"

"Oh. Right. Didn't even think of that." he said thoughtfully. "We at any rate it's going to take me a couple of days to make the proper runes. Get comfortable because there's no rushing these."

"Why is it going to take so long?" Chuck asked.

"Well, normally I'd just have to make one rune to make myself invisible to people and one to make myself invisible to the monsters of Silent Hill. Now I have to do the same thing but make sure that I'm visible to both you and Julia at the same time. Then your runes need to match mine and...it's complicated." he said with the rambling speech of someone who was both knowledgeable and passionate about a specific activity.

"So we go in, kick this Stone guy's ass, shoot his stooge in the face with the ghost bullet and then we go home?" Julia summed up.

"Going with Plan A again, I like it." Chuck said.

"I've a feeling it's going to be more complicated than that but yes." Victor nodded.

"Well let's get to it then. The world isn't going to save itself." she ordered.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Uninvited Guests

Sitting on the worn stool the Cerberus Unit guardsman felt like literally twiddling his thumbs to somehow make up for the large amounts of metaphorical twiddling he was doing. Posted at the most well staffed and invasion ready building in all of Silent Hill he was forced to ennui by his own safety. With the kooky cultists drawing up their magic little circles no monsters would be coming in anytime soon. The only action was out in the town itself and no grunt had ever been in the shit like that. One could hope for something exciting but around here exciting usually meant lethal too. Sometimes men just disappeared from right next to their squad mates. Creatures descended like locusts during the unholy periods of darkness to almost overwhelm them. There was that helmeted thing they had been warned to stay away from which wiped out anything that was stupid enough to go near it.

Then there were primary targets, a random pack of humans who kept running into the CU and led the man the cultists called "the greatest evil". The former were crafty, unafraid to shoot first and at least one was bulletproof. The latter had killed three dozen men at the start of their operation in Silent Hill in one of the worst losses of life in company history. Wearing a harness with a seemingly endless amount of knives in it the man in black had ducked, dodged, flat out disappeared and slid in between almost forty well trained, fearless men. Their employer lost four of their wizards or whatever they were whose red circles did nothing to slow the creature's rampage. The only thing that stopped the whirlwind was a blonde man whose nature was never made clear to the guards. It was he who plunged a sword in the chest of the man in black and even that didn't kill him for good. They never saw the blonde man after that and wished to never see again the man he'd defeated either.

They were told that the creature would never, ever break free of his icy prison and they were half right. But the CU was not told nor did they plan for a rogue element to overcome their scant garrison at the paper mill. The three humans still at large were responsible for undoing CU operations hopefully for the last time. If they were smart and had indeed survived the trap set for them on the bridge they would have left the ghost town already. The only true threat left was the man in black and their cult employer assured them that it would be years before he could ramp up to the kind of dangerousness he was previously capable of.

There was not much to do but sit around and keep at least one place in Silent Hill safe. "You make a new pot of coffee, Jim?" his partner Wally asked.

"Nope. Commander says to cut back to one a day 'til we get resupplied."

"Fuck are we supposed to drink? Hot water?"

"Yeah, actually."

"You gotta be kiddin' me." the other guard complained. "Hulme's always been a tight ass but this is ridiculous."

"Can't blame him." Jim sighed. "No one could have predicted how screwy things have gotten. Two days ago Rivers told me his dead grandma was talking to him while he was trying to sleep."

"Damn, that's nothin'. First time everything went tits up everyone in D squad had skeletons in their beds. They were all wearing matching dog tags with our names on 'em."

The first guard shook his head. "I hate this place. The waiting is the worst. Sentries are watching the only bridge and those mooks have got their crazy shit warning them if anyone comes within two blocks of this place. What are we doing here instead of out hunting the primary targets?"

"Gettin' paid."

"Yeah and that pay will be really useful when a thing without a face covers your ass in burning tar."

"Man, you sound like a bitch." Wally sneered.

"Fuck you. I'm done with this shit. When I get out of here I'm quitting."

"Huh!"

"I'm serious. I'll take a job at a mall or something where the worst incoming I'll have to deal with will be some punk kid stealing gum."

"Jesus, I'd rather die here."

"That can be arranged." someone said behind them. The first guard turned and someone stuck a metal tube in his eye. Blinking he realized that it was in fact the end of a shotgun barrel that a youth in kevlar was holding up to his skull. He couldn't have been more than 23 but there was a deadened, expressionless quality to his eyes that suggested he would not hesitate to pull the trigger. On his forehead a dab of dirt or ash had been applied and the guard made a squawking sound as it was the only reaction he could possibly summon.

A short, dark haired woman – a woman here in Silent Hill! - had place a giant .45 on the back of the other guard's neck. Strangely she was wearing what looked like a pair of heavy fighting gloves crafted from black leather and metal. For whatever reason she had them on they didn't seem to affect her ability to handle her gun as she kept a steady finger on the trigger. At this range a single trigger pull from either assailant would blow both of their heads into little pieces. Holding up their hands the guards were still as a man in a suit a blackish-green armor complete with sword and shield stripped them of their weapons.

"So you're them." Wally said as the knight relieved them of their spare ammo clips. "We were all wondering when you would show up again."

"You're all making a serious mistake working for the Order." he said as he continued to disarm them. His voice wasn't threatening but more matter of fact, almost professor-like. He might as well have been lecturing them on the differences between stratus and cumulus clouds. "You will suffer a fate worse than you can imagine here."

"This coming from a guy walking straight into suicide. You don't fuck with us and live to talk about it."

"Bold words for a man a few pounds of pressure from a bullet to the back of the head." the knight said disinterestedly.

"Wally, I've got a 12 gauge in my goddamn eye socket. Kindly shut the fuck up." Jim growled.

When the armored guy was done he brought their hands down behind their backs and lashed them together with an uncomfortable pressure. The kid holding the shotgun did nothing but watch him closely in an unnerving, detached sort of way that someone so young shouldn't have been capable of. Finishing tying them up their captors lead them deeper into the building. The man in armor seemed to know right where he was going when he led them to a small office room and pushed both of them down on their knees.

"Where's Marcus Stone?" the man in charge asked. When they didn't answer he sighed to himself. "Look, I'd rather not fight you. There's more dangerous things in Silent Hill to worry about. The sooner we find Stone the sooner we all go home."

"And not get paid? Hell no." Wally grunted.

"You would trade your life for the empty promise of stacks of paper?" the knight gestured with his hand. "You won't be paid anyway. None of you are leaving this place alive. The longer you remain the longer Silent Hill has to feed off your soul."

"Like we're just gonna bend over 'cause you say so." the second guard spat. "You're a smooth talker son but we're pros. Ain't nothin' you say or do is gonna make us crack."

"I told you." the shotgun toting youth said. "Let me shoot them."

"You'll alert the rest of them." the woman said in a low voice that would have been sexy in any other situation. "Slit their throats. It's quieter." she added and Jim immediately lost any desire he had for the short woman. She was arguably scarier than the other two combined.

"We're not killing them." the armored man said as he turned his head back to his companions in a clear tone of command.

"You three ain't shit." Wally said and Jim would have slapped the man if he could. "You ain't got the balls to scare a fifth grader. You-"

The knight stepped forward and thumped his shield into Wally's helmet so hard there was an audible cracking sound. When he stepped back the guard's mask was split in half and he teetered on his knees. "Yuh...hit like uh...bitch...muhfucker..." the uppity guard managed to half slur. The shield came up again and the knight dropped it hard on the guard's brow. The short attack knocked him out cold and guard hit the floor face first.

"So we can't kill them but giving them brain damage is okay." the woman complained. Her blood thirst was almost as disturbing as the fact that the other kid had yet to show any trace of emotion during the proceedings.

"He'll come to in a few minutes." the knight said defensively. "Now I'll ask you again, where is Marcus Stone?"

Jim mentally calculated what the odds were that he would be physically maimed if he didn't cooperate and assumed they would be very high. Suddenly the woman said, "Fuck this, gimme that thing." and reached for the knight's sword. She had it halfway out when Jim blurted, "He isn't here."

Scowling the woman slid the blade back down while the knight glared at her. "Go on." he ordered the guard.

"He's rarely here, just comes to check on us and talk to the CO." the guard revealed.

"Then he's set up elsewhere and left you mercenaries as decoys." the armored man surmised. "But someone here will know how to contact him."

"We got what we need. Can we kill them now?" the woman asked eagerly.

"No, no. This one's told us what we need to know. Bind them more thoroughly and let us be on our way."

Jim was greatly relieved to hear that even as they put a gag in his mouth and hog tied his hands to his legs. At least he was still in one piece.

* * *

Swiftly and quietly they gathered at the building's rear stairwell to skip inside. Though it was day there were no windows nearby and Victor clicked on his helmet light as they spoke in whispers.

"Things are about to get rough." he warned the other two.

"Can't we go invisible again?" Chuck asked.

"Don't want to risk it. The ash seems to defeat any runes nearby, even mine. If we take it off we become vulnerable to whatever traps the Order has set up around this place. They will have their former base well protected, Chuck."

"No magic then, just bullets." Julia nodded in the gloom.

"Looks that way. Just don't hold back. These guys will shoot first if we let them. Aim for their body armor if you don't want to permanently hurt them but take the shot if you have it."

* * *

The fourth floor stairwell opened and much to the surprise of the four men set to guard it three hostiles came pouring out of it. They were so sure about the security of the building the mercenaries weren't even carrying their rifles. Still the guards were trained soldiers and one of them went for his sidearm as a matter of relfex. A shotgun started barking.

* * *

The sound was unmistakable to the old solider. He's heard it a hundred, a thousand times in the course of his life. Somewhere all too nearby a buckshot hand cannon was going off repeatedly and it was certainly not one of his men taking practice shots. Worry gripped Hulme as he pulled on his mask and picked up his carbine.

* * *

Chuck wasted none of their tactical advantage and blasted two of the mercenaries at almost point blank range. Julia did not see blood but they looked like they were each hit with a sledgehammer to the chest from the force. Victor barreled into the third guard while the fourth charged the Canadian. Tying him up and jerking the shotgun up at the ceiling the guard forced the killer's third shot to shred the roof as they fought for control of the gun. Without a clear shot on either guard Julia acted quickly and holstered her .45. Kicking the back of the knee of the man Victor was fighting she created a momentary imbalance in his posture. The knight used the opportunity to topple his opponent over and proceeded to brutalize him with his shield.

Swinging around to help Chuck she smaller woman jumped onto the back of the mercenary trying to wrest the shotgun from his hands. She snaked a muscular appendage under his helmet to his neck and got the blade of her forearm pressed against his carotid artery. The metal gloves gave her no trouble as she attached her right hand to her left bicep and used the other arm to cinch in the blood choke on the back of the man's head. When properly done it would render someone unconscious in a few seconds and she had it done with practiced, textbook perfection. Squeezing as hard as she could she felt the man scramble to tug at her arms but it was too late. After a couple seconds of frantic clawing and Julia crushing his throat the man's knees gave out. Tipping forward onto the floor Julia rode his back on the way down and let him break their fall. Holding onto his neck just a couple of seconds longer than she normally would in the gym she let him go before she did anything more permanent.

Getting to her feet she saw Victor pummeling the last guard into a similar, inert pose as hers. Chuck was hurriedly reloading as he kept an eye on the hallway ahead. "Well, that was awesome." he commented as he pumped the shotgun to go _chchkk!_

"We had the drop on them, don't get careless." Julia warned as he drew her gun again.

"These guys are going to be back on their feet soon enough. Let's find this leader and then we'll get out of here." Victor said.

Leading with his blade her man brought them further ahead to where the building had a L shaped turn. There was a set a double doors around the corner with about a foot of wall on either side. Pointing silently at both ends with his sword Victor waited for Julia and Chuck to take up positions before setting himself in front of the doors. Kicking them open Victor immediately dropped down behind his shield. Julia had a half second to peek around the corner and saw a barricaded hallway in front of them with a contingent of mercenaries waiting. Spinning away from the ledge she flattened herself against the wall as the horrid memory of the bridge ambush came rushing back to her. The racket of a dozen rifles opening fire filled the hallway like a thunderstorm erupting and so many bullets filled the air they started blasting the walls into kindling.

The sound echoed much louder in the confined space than outside but Julia could still hear the sound of dozens of bullets ricocheting off of Victor's shield. This is what actually stopped the punishing salvo as the mercenaries ostensibly took cover from their own attack. Inching towards the open doors Julia stuck her gun around the corner and fired blindly into the hall for no other reason than to give the guards something to think about.

Uncoiling himself as the guns ahead rattled less Victor inched forward with the methodical pace of a turtle. Concentrating their fire on him the mercenaries tried to stop his advancement but the knight's shield held steady. Dropping a clip to the floor Julia popped another in and cocked her pistol before risking a look around the corner. There were defensive barricades of furniture and scrap metal forming crude but effective positions for the mercenaries to take cover behind. She could see the red glow of their masks from where they were ducking behind and she squeezed a few rounds at the ones with rifles on Victor. If they could keep him covered he would get behind their barricades and from there she was positive he could cause enough chaos to give her and Chuck open shots.

When there seemed to finally be a break in the crossfire Victor poked his head up over the lip of his shield to see. The most awful few seconds of Julia's life followed and she had a front row seat for all of it. A rifle was lifted from some fifteen feet away and let out a short burst at the knight. His shield absorbed the majority of bullets harmlessly but one lined up with perfect timing and aim to hit Victor in the forehead and snap his head back. Julia screamed as he fell back like a rag doll and crumbled to the floor. One of the mercenaries jumped up from the foremost barricade to finishing him off and Julia's hand came up all on it's own. Howling in rage and pain she emptied what was left of the clip into the black clad soldier without care to his safety. She whipped herself back away from the doors as her enemies returned fire and bullets splintered the edge of the doors.

Sobbing uncontrollably Julia reloaded and regret ever setting foot in his hell forsaken place. Hardly able to see her pistol through the tears she looked up to see Chuck on the other side ashen faced. Resolving to at least take a few of them with her she waited for soldiers to come to them so she could put a slug in their foreheads.

Sensing their advantage she could hear the mercenaries boldly moving out of cover to rush the threshold. The first one ran right into a buckshot shell and this time Julia did see blood spray. Pumping the shotgun Chuck fearlessly if suicidally met their charge and waded forward with his shotgun doling out sonic booms at the charging guards. Julia wiped the moisture away blocking her vision and decided to follow the Canadian into death.

Chuck blew the top of a mercenary's skull off and in that moment Julia noticed something strange. Victor's head rolled to the side and she saw his mouth moving. It took her a critical second to realize there was no blood around him and that while he'd take a savage blow to the head the round had not penetrated his helmet. Hope exploded through her body just as Chuck was drilled by return fire and went down. Their adversaries were too well trained, too ruthless to let her drag Victor to safety and if she went around the corner she likely wouldn't survive. She had to escape and find a way to save him rather than perish here.

"I'll be back for you!" she called to her man even if he was in no condition to hear her. Sprinting away from that terrible hallway she rounded the corner as bullets buzzed angrily by her. Coming up on the four men they'd incapacitated earlier she capped a couple of them on the way by who seemed to be recovering.

"After her! Go!" she heard a loud voice command and Julia practically jumped into the dark stairwell. Moving down the steps without the aid of light she heard men coming up the stairs towards her and the pilgrim realized too late that she was trapped. Fumbling for the door when she reached the third floor she opened it expecting more mercenaries to be waiting for her. By some luck the hallway was empty and she ran down it in search of a way out. Rounding the same L shaped corner as the floor above she found a long path of moldy carpet leading to an elevator. Charging forward she ran into the wall where the buttons where next to the elevator and mashed the call button.

Her heart sank when she realized that the old piece of machinery wasn't operational. She heard the door open from the stairwell on the other side of the building and accepted the fact that she wouldn't be making it out of here alive. Choosing a random door she hurried past it into an old filing room with its large wooden desks still inside. Crawling under one of the desks she put her back to the inside wall of the sturdy desk and held her pistol tight. They were going to find her anyway but the first one would at least take one to the face.

Chest pounding at a million miles a minute Julia forced herself to slow her near hyperventilation-level breathing. Everything had gone so wrong so quickly but she had to hold out the mad hope that somehow she would get free and save her friends...if they were even still alive.

Boots trampled up and down the hallway in search of her. Calming herself she was still even as that same loud voice said, "She's on this floor somewhere! Go door to door if you have to!"

Closing her eyes she could not see even the faintest light from under the desk. It was a shame though for things to end this way. She had promised her dead parents that she would be buried in the plot next to theirs just off Toluca Lake. "Mom, Dad, looks like I won't be able to keep up my end of the deal after all." she whispered.

They started checking doors and it was only a matter of time now. If only they had more people to fight the mercenaries and the Order. Where the hell was-

"The Dark Man!" she said out loud and her eyes popped open. Closing them again she furrowed her brow angrily and hissed, "Dark Man, Nothing, whatever the hell your name is, get us out of here! I'll pay whatever you want, just save us!"

The sounds of the soldiers kicking doors down was the only answer she received. Well, it was a least worth a try. Resigning herself to her fate Julia didn't notice the first drop of water hit her arm. The second one she did and shook it off as she listened closely to the men coming for her. The pilgrim was too concerned with her immediate future to question why she was being rained on under a desk inside of a building. Just then the door to her room was knocked wide open and she opened her eyes again, ready to send the first man to find her straight to hell.

Only she saw nothing but darkness in front of her.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: A Host Of Sorrows

"Clear."

"Clear?"

"Clear!"

"Yeesh, all right. Just makin' sure. We'd better call him over. He's gonna be pissed."

"Nothing we could do about it. Sir! Something you need to see here!"

Striding into the room the commander looked around the small space. Pointing his flashlight at the ground he found the tracks made in the dusty floor that lead around to one of the desks. Throwing the chair out of the way he saw what his men had found. Where there should have been the last target was an area of carpet absolutely soaked by water. There was so much moisture that his boot squished some of it out from the pressure of his weight.

"You're sure she came in here?" he asked.

"No other room's been tampered with."

This did not sit well with him. It was bad enough that three attackers could so easily invade their most fortified sanctum but it was worse that one of their number could simply vanish when cornered. "Back upstairs. We have work to do." he intoned gravely.

* * *

Even as she got her breathing under control Julia was aware that something was very, very wrong. She could not see a thing in front of her with her eyes wide open. The sound of rain pattering all around her coincided with the light droplets falling on her. It took the pilgrim another few seconds to put together that she was no longer inside a building, much less cowering under a desk. Craning her head upwards she felt the rain hit her directly on the face. Holstering her shaking pistol she reached up and felt nothing above or to the sides of her. The only trace of the world she had just been in was that there was something hard and flat directly behind her.

Bewildered but in no position to sit around and wait for answers she patted herself down to find her flashlight. Pulling it out of her pocket she clicked it on and revealed sights that did not make any sense. She was in a run down shack with its roof simply missing. The walls were barely standing and while there were windows at one point they had all been knocked out. She had been leaning on a heavy block of stone set into the center of the shack for no apparent reason or purpose. Things were abundantly clear something kooky had happened but that didn't give her any clues to where she found herself now.

Looking for an exit she discovered that the front door was gone and simply disappeared into darkness. Pointing the flashlight over the edge Julia learned that it was a drop of some ten feet down to a darkish gravel below her. Sweeping her light around she saw more abandoned buildings outside of hers that looked just as ready to fall. With the soft but persistent rain gradually soaking her clothes she had little choice but to find better shelter. Sitting down on the edge of the building she scooted herself off and landed on the unforgiving rocks below. Instinctively putting out her hands the pilgrim lost her flashlight for a second and scrambled to pick it back up after the fall.

Partially shielded by the buildings around her she turned in a full circle to look for somewhere better to sort everything out. The walls of the other shacks and dilapidated structures were too high to get into and she had to wonder who would build such a place with no ground access. Moving forward with no other options she noisily crunched down the alleys in between the dark buildings. Eventually coming out of the cluster of them she saw that far away there was a faint glow high in the sky. She thought at first it might have been another blank spot but this was a real light source. It was so high that it looked like a star at first but something was off.

Ahead of her was a sloping path cleared of gravel to reveal a cobblestone kind of street. In the gloom miles in front of her she could make out the tiniest bits of light but nothing steady or clear. The shacks and shanties lined the unkempt street and the pilgrim picked her way past them to head towards the object far away. It took her the better part of an hour to get past the labyrinth of buildings and get closer to whatever was ahead. The dirty path grew wider and clearer as the shanties stopped but Julia felt a little exposed walking on the orb-like stones. She was completely soaked now and the warmth of her blood was stolen away with each drop that struck. Her fingers and toes were numb even tucked into pockets and shoes but at least she was making forward progress of some kind.

Above her was suddenly a flash of lightning unlike anything she'd ever seen before and Julia was wholly unprepared for it. It had to be many times thicker than any flash she previously encountered and ran the entire length of the sky. Striking the faint glowing orb in the distance it showed her the lay of the land for almost a full second. Ahead on the path she was on was a long, black bridge leading to an island of dark, stone buildings made of the same material. The faint orb rested on top of a needle-like spire that split the firmament in half with its impossible height. Buzzing around it were hundreds of shapes in the air and Julia realized where she was just before the thunder struck.

Covering her ears she was forced to the ground grimacing in pain from the violent reverberation. It wasn't so much a sound as it was a shaking of everything around her and the interloper was turned dear for a few seconds. As the shock left her ears the pilgrim came to the conclusion that their phantom ally in Silent Hill had indeed come to her aid after all. While initially confusing it was apparent to her now where she was. The area matched Victor's description of Nowhere to the letter. Whereas the knight had the benefit of being on the tower in the distance it seemed like she had some ground to cover.

Starting forward again when she was fully recovered Julia started to slightly jog to warm herself up a little. Knowing now where she was there was little else to do but meet the crazed ruler in this grand monument to himself. Going another fifteen minutes or so – it was impossible to tell time in this place – she slowed as she reached the end of the cobbled road to where the great bridge took over. Something felt wrong and this spot would be a natural bottleneck for foot traffic. She had barely drawn her gun in caution when a number of lights erupted from the nearby darkness. Swinging her barrel of her .45 around she was blinded by the sudden illumination stabbing her adjusted pupils.

As she squinted to make out targets she saw a squad of men encased in combat armor with guns pointed at her. Suddenly worried that somehow the mercenaries followed her Julia almost fired on them before she realized that the men were not wearing the same kind of armor. They were made of overlapping plates not unlike Victor's heavy mail if more complicated in construction. Standing her ground Julia knew that she was hopelessly outgunned and should have listened to her instincts sooner. Now though was no time to show weakness to whoever these people were.

"What faction?" one of them demanded gruffly.

"Excuse me?" she replied.

"What faction are you with?" he repeated.

"None?" the pilgrim offered.

"Freelancer, eh?" he said. The lights came down out of her face and so did the guns. Julia downed her weapon as well but didn't put it away just yet. Looking at them now she saw that their armor was much more patchwork than she originally thought and only a couple wore helmets. Their faces were dirty, unshaven and some were terribly scarred.

"Ya got stones going in alone this close to the Lightening." he added. This one in charge was the cleanest of the bunch but that didn't mean very much.

"Sure." she shrugged.

"Were you planning on crossing the bridge alone?" he asked as if this was a big deal.

"Yeah. I have to get there." she pointed at the tower invisible in the dark.

"Wha? You got a death wish, freelancer?"

"I need to see the man at the top." she answered honestly.

"The Greatest Evil? The Prime Murderer?" the man in armor asked skeptically. "He'd just as soon rip you in half for daring to speak to Him or set foot in His tower."

"He and I have unfinished business." she informed them. "He will want to talk to me. Needs to, even."

The men looked at each other and then back to her with such dumbfounded stares that for a moment Julia thought she said something to offend them. "You've met Him before?" the man asked reverently.

"I'd say so. Saved his ass once. He owes me." she said.

"Sarge, this is big." one of the other men spoke up.

"I know." the apparent sergeant nodded. "Listen, you're sure we're talking about the same guy?"

"What's the big deal? It's the guy in the black straight jacket right? Black hair, eyes like a dead person, might be Hispanic or something, talks like a crazy person?"

"That's him!" the sergeant said excitedly. "Look lady, we're from the Blackreach faction. We're going to get you to Tower if we can."

"What? Why?" she wrinkled her nose.

"To do a favor for the Lord of Obsidian would do wonders for us. Will you tell Him that we helped you?"

"Uh...yeah, sure."

"All right men! Gear up! We're heading across! RPGs in the back! Widows up front! If we run into trouble I want everyone else on suppressing fire with their Mattocks! Priority is getting the freelancer through!" the man shouted.

The men started organizing themselves and their leader rummaged through his pack to produce a pair of high tech goggles for Julia. "We're going to need to run silent, ma'am." he said as he extended them to her. "These will help you see. Pray we don't get caught on the bridge when lightning striketh."

"Why?"

"The dragons control the bridges leading to the island." he said grimly. "Their tolls are heavy and that's if they even feel like collecting one. Might just eat you. Might collect your toll and then eat you anyway."

None of this seemed particularly agreeable to her but Julia supposed that there was little by way of choice at the moment. The men killed the lights on their guns and Julia pulled the special forces looking head set on. The night vision it granted revealed a couple of startling facts about the area around her. The bridge she was on was one of several that connected to the island ahead. The chunk of land itself was not in water but appeared to be floating above a chasm so deep there was no difference between it and the sky. Lastly, there were fierce battles being waged in the air around the tower. Little dots circled each other and some exploded in a minute twinkles before falling to the island far below. This place wasn't just a monument, it was a mad house.

The troops circled around her in a ring and together they stepped onto the bridge. It had to be a mile long with no supports built in which should have made it fall apart. Deciding not to worry about the architectural irrationalities of Nowhere she kept her eyes open for trouble. Moving quickly along the rough bridge their soft steps were barely audible over the pelting rain. The path was some fifty feet wide but they stuck to the very center for the bridge had no railings. A wrong step over the edge would lead to the endless pit just inches below their feet.

Around the halfway point of the stone path a tall, twenty foot arch was built for them to pass under. Julia could make out some kind of bas relief engravings but not what they were exactly. As they neared the arch something massive came up from behind the structure to perch of top of it. She froze as it lifted a massive claw and stomped down to make light explode all around them. A powerful beam pierced the lenses meant for total darkness and the pilgrim ripped the goggles from her face. Holding her arm up to shield herself from the beam she let her eyes adjust as she got a good look at what stopped them.

Resting atop the arch was a gigantic dragon, a real, moving, living creature of myth with its great leathery wings flapping in its rankled state. Folding them at its sides Julia saw that it had activated a flood light that was lighting up the stretch of bridge they were on like it was daytime.

"Shit!" one of the soldiers whispered. "When did they learn to use those!?"

"Quiet!" the sergeant snapped.

"_Hahahaha_!" the beast laughed with a voice so deep and resonating that Julia could feel it in her chest. "Z_u'u Veydezzul! Hi meyye ni lo! Koraav!_"

"What's he saying?" Julia asked softly.

"He's annoyed we tried to cross undetected." the sergeant answered. "Great _dovah_! We only seek to pass!" he shouted up at the creature.

"_Jorre aal ni lahney voth nid dovath kogaan! Kos bonaar!_" the razor-mawed monster rumbled ominously. "_Aav dii lahvu uv dir!_"

"He wants us to work for him and his dragon faction." the human translated under his breath.

"Or what?"

"Or he kills us."

"Whoa! Rock, hard place. Why don't you tell him about me?" she offered.

"No, no," the sergeant shook his head, "he'll kill you for sure."

"What? Why wouldn't he want to help like you?"

"The dragons would openly defy the Highest Power just so He would respect their impudence." the soldier explained.

"I don't get this place." Julia shrugged.

"We're going to open fire. Get ready to make a run for it."

"Can you beat that thing?" she asked.

"I don't know." he said and turned back to the winged lizard. "Honored friend! We make of this an offering!"

"_Geh? Kora-_"

The sergeant lifted his gun and shot not at the dragon but at the floodlight keeping them all lit up. It flickered and died as Julia charged forward across the dark again bridge. The dragon let out a screeching roar as the men behind her opened machine gun fire on the beast.

"Go! Remember the name Blackreach!" the sergeant yelled over the din. Missiles from the RPGs streaked overhead and lit up the slick bridge with tiny, glowing reflections of the muzzle flashes. The creature ducked down behind the arch and jumped down off the bridge into the gloom as Julia sprinted under where it had been sitting a moment ago. She wasn't particularly happy to leave her new friends but she'd been given a chance to escape she could not pass up. Running headlong into darkness she hoped she was staying straight and wasn't about to go flying off the bridge at any moment.

From behind her she heard the terrible wings of the dragon beating just before it let out a pealing screech that sounded like a jet turbine screaming in pain. It coincided with orange light and Julia turned to see the dragon expelling a thirty foot long gout of flame as it strafed the bridge. At least one of the soldiers was burned alive by the beast's dread breath and Julia was spurred deeper into the Dark Man's home in the hopes that she would not be next.

* * *

Kneeling before him were two of the three people whom had caused Hulme so many headaches. Hooded and cuffed they were no longer a threat but he needed to interrogate them anyway.

"You three have been a pain in my ass since you came here." he started. "But I am not an unreasonable man. Many times you could have killed my men but you didn't. We could have worked something out before but now you have CU blood on your hands."

Pacing around the prisoners he added, "But I'm pragmatic. We'll let you live – at one cost. We want to go home. Get us out of this hell and we'll call it even."

"You're wasting your time, Commander." one of them piped up. "You can kill us but you'll be no closer to leaving. Stone can't free you any more than we can."

"You must be Victor." Hulme said. "Stone was your mentor, your employer once. Tell me about his operation."

"Their drugs pay your salary but they don't care about wealth. It's just a means to an end for most of them. The religion is much more important and they'll sacrifice every last one of you just to be a little closer to their gods."

"You've left before. They have to leave after they've gathered their flowers in order to sell them back in the real world. How does it work?" the mercenary captain demanded.

"You don't understand, Commander." the hooded man shook his head sadly. "They can leave because each of them has enacted the ritual to be _allowed _to leave. They ask the town for forgiveness and make their escape by its permission, not the other way around. It is not a door to open or shut for all. Had you and your men pure hearts you could come and go as you please. It is your darkness the town craves and it will not let you go so easily."

The hardened soldier had to think on this. It was in direct contradiction to what his employer promised him. One of them was lying and his gut feeling was that it was not the captive before him. Men close to death rarely told lies of that magnitude. "What do you suggest we do then? If we're as doomed as you say then perhaps we can work together."

"Call Stone and get him to us. My friend will make him talk and we can finish our business here. For your help my friend may be able to get you out."

"Your friend? The woman?"

"No, not her." he said and chose to say the next words slowly. "The one in the straight jacket. The Fater. The greatest evil."

"That guy?" Hulme scoffed. "The one who sliced thirty of my men into body bags? You think we'd rely on him after what he did to us?"

"He's pragmatic, like you. All he wants is the Order out of Silent Hill and Stone's head on a plate. Your people aren't a threat to him. Never were."

"We beat him once." the commander snarled.

"You had the Order's help along with their equal resonance. Without them he would have slaughtered you to a man." the prisoner said without guile.

"And I'm supposed to trust the lot of you? Morale is barely hanging on by a thread as is. I've got seven men in the infirmary along with two bagged and tagged thanks to you. That's just from this latest skirmish." Hulme recounted.

"You shot my friend in the head." the second captive spoke for the first time. "What would you have done?"

"Look Commander, you have two options." Victor interjected. "Trust us and get your best shot for walking out of here. Or believe the lies your employer has fed you only to find out too late you chose poorly."

Hulme sincerely hoped that these were not truly his options as he didn't care for either one of them. He could not bring himself to go out on a limb here despite was his heart was telling him. "I'm sorry, I can't." he answered with finality.

"Then you have chosen oblivion for yourself and your men, Commander. Don't bother praying to your gods though. They can't hear you, here."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22: The Dash

Running forward as fast as her legs would carry her Julia slipped her mask back on lest she run off the bridge she was currently fleeing away from. It was quickly coming to an end and terminated in a massive gate built into the walled city she originally saw in the distance. Even with the greenish glare of the night vision she couldn't see beyond the hundred foot high gate which itself was only about a third of the way up the outer wall. The sounds of gunfire faded as she entered a long tunnel under the wall and for the first time in at least an hour had a temporary respite from the rain. The vaulted corridor looked like it was built to allow something gigantic to get through and she never wanted to know what that was exactly.

Leaning one hand against the wall of the tunnel she panted as she got her breath back. Though she was overheating in her torso her fingers were still numb and her toes were just now getting some life back into them. Looking over her shoulder she could barely make out the figures of some of the guards still moving and the dragon was nowhere in sight. It was a small comfort that a least a few were still alive and she was determined not to waste the chance they'd given her. Peering into gloom in front of her she could see green pinpricks of light past it but nothing more. Tightening her fists in her metal gloves the frightened loner resumed her forward march to distant and dubious safety.

The passage had to be at least three city blocks long and Julia had to wonder if the wall above the tunnel was solid rock. It would mean millions of tons of material were used to build just the outside layer, let alone the rest. When was there time to do all of this? It didn't make sense.

As she drew closer to entering the metropolis she heard a faint commotion far away that seemed to be growing louder along with the amount of green light. Coming out of the tunnel into the ever present rain she got her first good look at the Dark Man's walled fortress. It was a mixture of familiar and bizarrely alien unlike anything she ever even heard of before. Given her location she should have expected nothing less.

Modern skyscrapers were joined with breath taking medieval cathedrals and mosques. Greek style temples, step and triangular pyramids and ornate, delicate Japanese pagodas were dwarfed by gigantic trees with boughs the size of aircraft carriers. Shifting, spinning buildings made entirely of glass vied for her attention with sinister, twisting towers burning pyres on different levels and space age looking platforms with sub cities in glass bubbles on top of them. The only uniformity that could be found was that there was none. Standing there in slack-jawed amazement Julia had to close her mouth and remind herself that she was on a mission to get home. Still...as much as she wanted to be home with Victor this place was much more than Julia ever dreamed it would be.

A grand avenue stretched out before her made of wet brick set into a paved road with gutters along the sides. The rain picked up as she pulled off her night vision mask. Lamp posts, ostensibly filled with oil, set at regular distances gave the path an 1800s look as well as providing ample visibility. Curiously many of the lamps were either not lit or smashed to pieces but it was still preferable to the total darkness of the outer ring. Reaching behind her to put the goggles in her ammo bag the interloper realized with dismay that it was not there anymore. It took her a moment to come to the conclusion that it hadn't been for some time and that she was down to only the bullets in her gun. This new revelation rated somewhere between 'horrible' and 'catastrophic' on the bad news scale but she had no other options than to keep going.

Moving forward she encountered more and more working lights which were indeed burning oil from the smell of them. The rain went _tink!_ off their elaborate, wrought iron posts and the steady patter of rain was replaced by something much more frenzied as she tread on the cold stone. Getting to visual range where the commotion she'd heard much earlier was happening she slowly became aware of what she was looking at and decided that some things were better left to the imagination.

The increasingly loud disturbance revealed itself to be a chaotic, full scale battle ahead. Keeping her shortage of ammo in mind the pilgrim tossed aside the goggles and flexed her fingers in the metal gloves as she walked. When she was two hundred or so feet to the conflict she was able to make out what was going on as the din increased. Echoing off the buildings lining the avenue and gaining volume with each step were a thousand acts of violence occurring all at once and back to back. Squinting through the downpour she heard bullets being fired, metal striking metal, shouts, screams, detonations and crumbling walls singing a song of wild brutality.

The groups involved in the melee were as varied as the buildings around them. Some were dressed like jousting knights complete with armor, shields, lances and swords. Men in pirate hats armed with flintlock pistols and sabers battled monks with shaved heads while also engaging lizard men with forked spears. Guerrilla fighters with bandanas over their faces shot AK-47s at a horde of moving corpses who tackled and tore their victims apart in packs. A helicopter swooped by as multiple grenades went off and the battle raged on, oblivious to Julia's existence. The scene reeked of blood, gun powder and leftover explosive gases that assaulted her nose as much as her eyes. Gawking at moving wreckage ahead she didn't know if she could make it through this melee, let alone the miles to the looming tower on the horizon.

A red muscle car came tearing around the corner ahead and plowed through a mass of ghouls with a tank-like cow catcher built onto the front end. Careening uncontrollably it slammed on its brakes as it swerved somewhat in Julia's direction before crashing into the side of what looked like a fire station. It was only about 70 feet away from her but the corpses began to swarm it as the battle swallowed the car whole. Julia decided that if it could run that the heavily armored vehicle was her ticket away from this place.

"You can do this." she whispered to herself. "Just get to the car. Get to the car."

Taking a few deep breaths and getting a running start the pilgrim charged into the unbridled chaos of the battle. Getting up to a sprint and ramming into crowd shoulder first she learned the hard way that seeing the havoc was much different than being in the thick of it. Stumbling over the dead and dying, jostled, body checked and nearly knocked over by the mosh pit-like sea of enemies the pilgrim fought for every inch. The living dead, while frightening in appearance, were little match for her metal covered fists and when she unloaded on their skulls they fell rather easily. One of them split itself open in front of her and she ran chest to chest into a pirate with his cutlass still embedded in the creature's sternum. Julia could smell his salty, unwashed body and fetid dread locks which at any other time might have been comical. Instead he pulled a 15th century pistol on her in the cramped quarters they were forced into which despite being a priceless antique was still a lethal weapon. Julia swayed away from the shot with as much room as she could but she still felt the burn of the discharge as it went off by her head.

Acrid smoke exploded around them and Julia roared in anger as much as pain when she delivered a mostly blind overhand right to the pirate's throat. Metal made contact with soft flesh and before she could see what had happened to him she was swept away a moment later. Vision obscured by the haze and pushed along by a surging mob the pilgrim threw elbows as best she could as she spotted the bright red car through the carnage. She was almost carried past the car but snagged the rear bumper like a swimmer catching themselves on a low hanging branch to avoid being dragged along by a river. Pushing a knight fighting a frog man out of the way she slid towards the front of the car where the powerful engine was still rumbling anxiously.

The red hot rod was still under heavy attack from the corpses who were climbing all around it trying to break their way in. Cracking one of them on the jaw as it tried to get past the heavily tinted passenger side window Julia got to work clearing the area. Gripping the soiled and bloody clothing of the undead she started hauling and heaving them off the vehicle. Working her way to the driver side she dropped another with a punch to the back of the head as it tried to get into the hood. One of them had broken through the driver's window and was halfway inside the car when she grabbed its ankles and yanked it out onto the street.

To her surprise there were two men in the front seats. Clad in bright racing suits and helmets only the passenger appeared to be conscious. The driver's head lolled to the side but she didn't see any evidence of permanent damage. "Who the hell are you!?" the passenger yelled over the battle.

"A freelancer! Need to get to the tower!" she shouted back. Something grabbed her shoulder and Julia turned around to break a guerrilla's nose with a straight left.

"I need a ride!" she shouted

"My bro's out!" he pleaded.

"Wake his ass up then! You sit here any longer and you're dead!"

A second frog man literally jumped on her and Julia was slammed against the hard side of the car by its weight. Incensed Julia gripped the top of its surprisingly dry head and kneed it in what she assumed was its chest. Legs thick enough to make a Frenchman cry buckled under her assault and Julia contemptuously threw it aside. "Hey! Hey man! Get up! We gotta go!" she heard the passenger shouting as she stomped on the frog man's squishy head.

"Fuck!" someone new behind her said and she whirled to see the driver coming to. "The fuck is going on..." he said woozily.

"This broad just saved us! Open your door!" the passenger ordered. Bewildered but compliant the driver swung his door open and Julia literally dove into the back seat. He slammed the door behind her while Julia scrambled to avoid glass and sit up on the leather seats as the hot rod thundered to life. Lurching backwards the car ran over bodies both prone and upright as they eased out from the side of the building the car had run into.

"Can this thing still go!?" she shouted as a machine gun went off nearby.

"Shee-at! This baby was built to knock down them goddamn Po-laris towers at 90 plus!" the passenger yelled as he worked the car's complex, four levered gear box. Shifting forward the rear tires peeled out on top of a body before gaining traction and springing ahead into the crowd. The cow catcher worked with cruel efficiency as it lifted everyone and everything out of the car's path and after a number of bumps punctuated by arterial spray they were racing away from the battle.

"Bro, that was intense!" the passenger said enthusiastically.

"Dude, I know." the driver said. "My fuckin' head is killing me."

"Try not running in a wall next time dipshit!" the passenger said with what Julia assumed was a giant grin on his face. "Lucky you came along missy." he added.

"Yeah..." Julia trailed off as she watched the speedometer rise past 70. Suddenly having the strong urge to buckle herself up she hastily did so as the lamp posts blurred by. They zoomed past smaller battles, mages fighting with fireballs and the smoking ruins of fighter jets littering the avenue. The driver, as recently concussed as he was, expertly weaved through the larger obstructions and drove through the smaller ones.

"You got a way of getting past the second wall, freelancer?" the driver asked as they clipped an assassin in a white hood and spent a blood spatter flying onto the windshield.

"Uh, no?" she offered. "What second wall?"

"The inner ring? The wall without doors you have to fly or climb over?" he said as if this was information a preschooler would know.

"Bro, let's test it out." the passenger said eagerly.

"What? On the inner ring?"

"Yeah! If we can do this we can plow one of them cannon towers down right?"

"Aight." the driver agreed. "Buckle up little lady, we're about to drive through a wall ."

"Fuck, you guys are crazy." she blurted. Looking around she saw extra straps and began lashing herself to the back seat as best she could.

"This is going to be sick. I always wanted to try crashing the party of the man upstairs." the driver said.

"Nothing, if these two idiots kill me, I'm coming for you in the afterlife." Julia promised.

* * *

Lights passed overhead, blinding him. The air was cold and wet, smelling of mold and rust. He'd been man handled and beaten by the mercenaries already and now was seemingly strapped to a moving hospital bed even though he did not recall how he got there. There was a throbbing pain in his skull and the glare of the lights kept his eyes from focusing properly. He was being taken somewhere in a hurry and if he had an idea of where he was then nothing good was going to come at his final destination.

Thrust under a bright, large overhead light he was blinded even when he closed his eyes to shut out the glare. Groggy but recovering he realized that there was a good chance he had been drugged. "Still the vigilant watchman in the dark, I see." said an oily, smooth voice that hadn't been heard in years.

"Huuuungh...Simon..." Victor said drowsily. He could not see the man but he could feel his malice soaked presence nearby.

"I admit, it wasn't until recently that I entertained the notion that you had survived." the Order Master said.

"I always hoped that you didn't." the knight answered truthfully.

"You were so careful." Stone continued, oblivious to his comment. "For years we looked for your body. Of course, attaching your tracking rune to that arm was a nice touch."

"Huh...not me...the Fater." Victor said and wondered why he was being so forthright.

"Ah. Of course. Tell me, were you always working for him? Or was it by some divine miracle that you escaped when none of my adepts did?"

"Neither...I simply...asked for my life..." he answered again. He tried to collect his thoughts but they slipped out of his mouth before he could. "We were never in collusion, not until recently...not until you managed to cage him."

"Interesting...I had assumed at least a base level of cooperation between the friend of my enemy. I assume he furnished you with your armor, weaponry, sheets? Things you could not have crafted on your own?"

"He did..."

"Mmm, I see now. How did he call you back to Silent Hill after I dropped him down a well?" Stone pressed.

"I...I don't know..." Victor answered and came to the realization that he had been given something to loosen his tongue. Everything he was saying was almost against his will. "He came to us in dreams."

"Ah. Clever, Fater. I knew he would have an escape route, an ace in the hole. I never imagined that it would be you, my lost, erstwhile apprentice."

"I was never your apprentice." Victor said with finality. "I only wanted to learn. I was going to run away when we went to make the sheets."

"A move that would have ended poorly for you had it not been for the Greatest Evil. But lo, here we stand regardless. Back to where you would have been, should have been all these years. You have run for so long, Victor Rosencrantz. Finally you have come back home. It would be a shame to let your talents go to waste by killing you."

"Go...to hell, Stone."

"An apt choice of words, apprentice. You will learn that nothing is impossible for the true servants of God. But one last question before you go. The ashes I found on you...the ones that break our runes...what are they? Where did they come from?"

"I don't know. Ask the Fater." Victor spat.

"I intend to. But first, you have to be reshaped back into a useful tool for us."

"I'll never work for you again!"

"Oh, I know, I know." Stone said serenely and leaned over into Victor's vision. The years had not been kind to the Order's patriarch. His visage was more sunken and skeletal than the knight remembered, his skin more pallid. His eyes, intense and cold at the same time, had however remained the same.

"You're looking old, Order Master." Victor said.

"How petty." Stone dismissed. "There's someone I want you to meet. A colleague of mine. He'll be handling your...reeducation. Death is too good a punishment for you Victor Rosencrantz. Your crimes warrant a penalty much more severe...and you will pray for a death that will never come."

Victor had lived in Silent Hill for most of his adult life and few things frightened him. Pyramid Head ranked on the top of his list with Nothing a short distance away but neither inspired true terror in him, not anymore, not since the old days. Even when he fought the red helmeted monster years ago underneath Lake Toluca his fear was tempered with purpose, even resolution that it would likely mean his life.

Here and now, strapped to a gurney at the mercy of his former master, Victor was truly afraid again.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Two's Company, A Hundred's A Crowd

Buckled in as tightly as she could have been Julia's heart leapt into her throat as she watched the speedometer on the muscle car ramp up past 90. Hurdling towards a rapidly growing black wall she would have been cursing non-stop if she dared breath. They were really going to slam into a wall in this contraption with enough momentum to turn them all into accordions.

"On my mark." the driver said and he steered them directly ahead. Wind was rushing in through his window and making it somewhat hard for Julia to see what was going on. The passenger reached up to the ceiling of the car where a metal windshield cover had been built. Unlatching it was one hand he waited as the pilgrim briefly considered wetting herself. The wall was coming up far, far too quickly and they had long since passed the point of backing out.

"Now!" the driver screamed and the passenger pulled the thick metal plating down. For a moment they were blind with nothing but rocking cabin and rushing air to confirm that they were even moving. She tried to brace herself for impact but she was dealing with forces outside her control.

The car hit the wall and she felt the structure of the vehicle almost give as metal met stone. The seat belts cut into her body as her brain and internal organs were yanked forward to the horrid cacophony of rending metal, glass and rock. Inertia thew her around like a rag doll and the car flipped for a violent, horrible second. Suddenly it was over and they mercifully came to a stop.

Julia groaned as she unbuckled herself and tried to make her head stop spinning. Her whole body felt like it had been tossed out of a window and by the time she freed herself the driver had happily sprung out of the car to inspect the damage. Crawling out of the moving death trap she'd agreed to get into for some reason the pilgrim spilled out on the wet pavement and didn't mind rubble she was on top of as long as it wasn't moving.

"Bro, it works!" the passenger said and Julia truly hated the man's enthusiasm at that moment.

"Dur." the driver commented. Looking back at the car from the ground she saw that it was dirty, scraped and banged up but still very much in one piece. She never wanted to get in a vehicle again.

"Well, one test down. Let's go run this baby into a Polaris." the driver said.

"Fucks. Yes." the passenger fist pumped.

"You alright?" he asked Julia.

"I'm...I'm fuh- hyulkh!" she managed to get out before throwing up all over the stones in front of her.

"Freelancers." the driver shook his head.

"Oh man, grodie."

Crouching down by her the driver said, "We gotta roll, miss. You're welcome to join us anytime. We could use a heavy hitter like you."

Spitting up bile Julia pushed herself up and wiped her foul tasting mouth clean with her wet hand. "Thanks...I think. I gotta keep going."

"Us too. The Lightening's coming." he nodded. "Bro, let's do it."

"Hells yeah. Later, lady."

"Who...who are you? I'll tell the man up top you helped me. He'll reward you." Julia said.

"The Thundering Herd faction." the driver said as he climbed into the cabin and slammed the door. "You run into any of our boys and girls, tell them Flannery said you're all right."

"Kay..." she said as she made it to mostly steady feet and backed away from the car. Roaring to life again the mean looking hot rod spun its tail around and tore through the massive hole it had ripped open in the wall. Julia watched the tail lights disappear as she looked around her at the remnants of the impact. They tore a crater into the wall and bits of rock were strewn at least fifty feet from the hole. She wondered how they'd survived in the first place but at least it was over.

Stumbling towards the tower ahead she moved as fast as she could with her trauma shaken head still a tad woozy. The buildings leading up to it had no doors or windows that the dazed pilgrim saw but the lamp lights became brighter to help her see. The cold rain beat down on her in a torrent now but glad to still be alive Julia didn't care.

Finally reaching the wide base of the tower she looked up at it having reached her destination. The spire went up like a monument of a forgotten age with both ancient and modern accents. The top was so distant that the glowing ball she'd seen from miles away was a still speck on the vertical horizon line flipped on the wrong axis. Forcing herself onward she came not to a front door but a gaping wound in the bottom of the tower. Something had blown a billboard-sized hole in the smooth, black rock everything seemed to be made out of. Clicking on her pocket light which was miraculously still functional the interloper headed into the darkened chamber.

For being so terrifically tall it was not particularly wide on the inside like she imagined it would be. Circular with a two hundred odd foot diameter the main area was dimly lit by glowing floor runes burning a soft blue. Concentric circles of them extended from the outer wall to the very center where they were tightly grouped and thus brightest. They illuminated a thin, column like shaft that went up into the darkness above that the blue glow could not penetrate.

Though the setting was unusual to say the least it still bore Nothing's calling cards. She recognized the swirling, gently curving markings that he used exclusively and which so greatly varied from Victor's rigid, perfectly straight ones. Cluttering every step to the center was evidence of a mighty conflict not unlike the one she'd made it through to get here. Bodies, gore, blades, rubble, wicked machinery and animal carcasses littered the floor in silent repose. The pilgrim felt like she was intruding on a hushed graveyard which, now that she thought about it, she kind of was. Picking her way past the dead and guided by her powerful beam she headed to the column at the center.

She'd gone less than fifty feet when she head a metallic _ssssht!_ from across the room. With the distant battles being waged too far away to hear the inside of the tower was remarkably quiet and she was sure the sound was nearby. Julia's pistol appeared in her hand and she swung her light around to look for the source of the noise. There were no signs of life from the dead and with a sneaking suspicion something was wrong she picked up her pace.

Treading carefully to avoid stepping on any of the numerous corpses she made it another twenty feet before hearing another sound. Much closer this time it could have been a muffled gasp or a wheeze. Whirling around she pointed a shaking gun every direction in hopes of spotting whatever was following her. By chance she saw a man in a metal knight's suit with no helmet on and a large bullet wound in his forehead. The body was, disturbingly, a dead ringer for Victor. The only difference was its dirty blond hair as opposed to her man's dark brown. Lingering on the oddity her mind told her to move but she was transfixed by the similarity.

The corpse's eyes slowly creaked open to reveal milky, pupil-less orbs underneath. Terror hit Julia in the gut and the body turned to her to reach out with an upturned palm. "Julia..." it croaked with a whispering harshness, "join us..."

As if waiting for this cue the entire room began to move en masse. Headless horsemen started to get up as their decapitated steeds scrambled to get hooves underneath them. Broken machinery hummed to life and each fallen combatant began to rouse themselves. Julia's mind screamed at her to run somewhere, anywhere. Something nearby feebly attempted to grip her pant leg and this physical contact spurred her to act. Bolting for the center column her scared witless mind did not have time to consider that perhaps it was not a good idea to head deeper in the room.

Grasping hands, claws and tentacles reached out for her with increasing coordination as the dead army began to waken. The comforting blue light now caressed a thousand moving shadows as Julia desperately raced by them. A giant with a great, scraggly beard five feet long dressed in animal leathers rose in front of her with a small tree for a club. It took a lazy but heavy swipe at her and the terrified pilgrim had to divert her path into a couple jelly fish looking creatures with long stalks for legs which went above her head.

Barreling through them she almost lost her footing on a patch of slime. The creatures around her were halfway up and the pilgrim knew that if they all attacked in unison she would be overwhelmed instantly. Kicking a crow the size of a great dane in the face on her way by as it pecked at her she pointed her gun forward and shot a precious round at a Big Daddy reaching for a rivet gun. The bullet blew a couple of its fingers off and it moaned with inhuman bass as Julia vaulted over a mechanical centipede. Using the back of a bull fighter to launch herself over the last remaining bodies in her way she tumbled her way to the column and the hope of safety.

With the blue runes providing much light she made out a shadowy protuberance as she tottered forward. Training her light on it she saw that it was a button and mashed it with her fist as she ran into the column. A tiny lens popped out from above her head and werewolves howled behind as a thin blue laser sprayed lines of rippling light over her body.

It was only a few seconds but seconds the pilgrim did not have. Turning around she shot a Brotherhood paladin in full power armor just a few feet away in his eye and unloaded on a caveman drawing a bone bow on her. Behind her a door hissed open and she twisted away from the undead legion coming for her. Inside the column was just as empty as the tower save for a single lever built into the floor. Rushing to it Julia put a hand on the cold metal shaft before turning back to see the horrors just a few feet away about to enter the column with her. A hundred guttural growls, wails and mechanical dissonances sounded and with her pulse close to maxing out Julia yanked down on the lever that had only seconds to save her.

Her stomach flipped into her throat and she was plunged not up but down into a deep, dark chasm where the only things she could hear were her own screams.

* * *

Gagged and tied to a chair wasn't particularly the best way he wanted to spend his day. Not that the killer could tell what time of day it was in the small, windowless room he was locked in. Fortunately he was never short of company and there were always at least two of the mercenary guards nearby. The big one was playing with a large bat that the Canadian had a feeling he was going to be introduced to in the near future. The mercenaries wanted information from him. They were not going to get it.

Of course, in the end it didn't matter much if he said everything he knew or not. Neither he nor Victor, where ever the knight was, had a chance to get out of here alive. Chuck could only hope that he had bought Julia enough time to escape and that Dark Man knew of their plight. If their friends were not coming to their rescue, well, at least he had done his part. The mental patient had long envisioned his death of old age in the asylum; this, at least, would not last as long.

"What's your name, friendo?" the second, smaller man asked. "Feel free to nod when you want to write something down. We were instructed to keep you gagged, sorry about that." The mercenary pushed the small pad of paper on a corner table towards him. Chuck did not respond but continued to stare straight ahead, dead to the world.

"Listen pal, I'd hate to point out the obvious but you're kinda in the shit here. See, us guys have been pent up in this place for way too long. No R&R, no place to go, no hope to get out any time soon. You and your posse, you kinda messed things up for us. We don't like that. Then you killed a couple of our friends and I'll be god-damned if we're going to let that pass."

The big man lifted the bat and prodded the killer in the chest with it. "You best start talkin' boy. In a way."

"We just want to know how you got in, where you came from, who you're working for. The guys in robes want to know how your little ash trick works. Work with us here and we'll forget about what you did. Continue to be stubborn..."

"Imma shove this bat up your ass." the first one promised.

"Speaking of that." the second man smiled like a snake. "It's been a long time since any of us has seen a woman. I don't need to remind you that we're not a bunch of pansies here at the CU...but everyone's got needs, you catch my drift? We're hard men, son. Some of us have done time. It ain't even a thing to some of our regulars. How about you Dom, you fancy the POW here?"

"I ain't no faggot." the big man said.

"Me either. It's your lucky day, today. But some of us, when they see a helpless young boy like yourself all tied up and waiting...well I ain't gonna make you any promises."

Chuck continued to stare at nothing in particular. Pain was the price of his continued existence, physical, mental, spiritual. This would be just another in the long list of atonements he would have to make for taking an innocent life. They wanted to threaten him with all the horrors they could think up? Every day he went to sleep without his medication was worse than this.

"Nothing? Jeez kid, I almost feel sorry for you. Dom, do your thing."

The big man laid the back so hard across Chuck's chest that it knocked him and chair backward. The mercenaries laughed as the Canadian coughed and sputtered from the eye-popping pain under the gag. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Waking up on his own and still strapped down Victor was at least done fighting the effects of the drugs they'd pumped into his system. Testing his bonds for the hundredth time he said aloud, "Nothing, Fater, where are you?" He knew the Order had done a number on their deceased ally but how long until he recovered? If it wasn't soon there might not be anyone left to rescue.

Hours passed and the knight rested until someone entered the room from the door nearby. Victor opened his eyes to squint but with his head locked in place he couldn't see much beyond the bright light in front of him. Someone walked over to his table and leaned over into his vision. It was someone the knight had never seen before but was in the traditional robes of the Order. This man was overweight with a near triple chin and dark, beady eyes.

"Alone at last." he said with the eager joy of an accountant. "I've been looking forward to meeting you for some time."

"Who are you?"

"Saffros. Your education specialist. I'll be your best friend from here on out." the fat man said.

"Somehow I doubt that..."

"Don't be so melodramatic my boy. This doesn't have to be unpleasant for you." he said and tapped Victor on the forehead before walking away from the table.

"What are you going to do?"

"Ever have a nightmare that you just can't wake up from?" the disembodied voice asked. "One so strong, so real that you could swear that when you woke up, reality was the true dream?"

There was a moving of metallic tools and commotion from nearby and Victor resigned himself to the torture he had assumed was coming. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked because this is somewhat important to you. Your conscious self won't respond to us no matter what we do, that much Master Stone has made clear. If you won't willingly rejoin our ranks...well...perhaps your subconscious will prove more...malleable."

"Impossible..." Victor breathed.

"Oh no, not for us." Saffros said almost happily. "You should have kept your word, traitor. Done what you were told. Now it's going to get ugly for you. The Order Master specifically requested that the first thing you do when properly educated is lick his shoes clean. It sounds dreadful, they get so muddy sometimes."

The bright overhead light dimmed and for once Victor did not have to squint see. Looking around for Saffros he said, "Whatever you're about to do...I'm going to give you the chance to not do it and let me go. The Fater's coming for you all. Get me out of here and I'll make sure he doesn't touch you."

Returning to lean over him with a metal contraption in his hands Saffros looked genuinely surprised. "I've heard a lot of threats and requests from people in your position but that one takes the cake. I sure do love cake..." he trailed off, lost in thought.

"Huh." he snapped himself out of his own reverie. "Your pal isn't coming any time soon. We let your friend call for him already and he's yet to show up. Don't worry though, he's been silenced and soon you won't be in a position to speak either." the chubby man said and pushed the framework onto Victor's face. Braced on his cheeks and skull the machine inserted painful metal scoops under his eye lids and lifted them out of the way. A light was placed in front of his unblinking retinas and they had nowhere to go when it blazed on. Pupils stabbed by the unrlenting beam it randomly flicked off around ten long seconds later. Eyes burning in the after image of the light Victor heard Saffros begin to speak in a dull, monotone pitch by his ear.

"Your eyes are heavy and your body is tired. You're sinking down, down, down as your pulse begins to slow. You're falling into the ocean and sinking to the bottom. Your eyes are heavy and your body is tired..."

The light flared on again as Saffros continued to chant the same lines over and over. The knight tried to keep track of how many repetitions went by but kept losing count when the light seared his eyes. After a while, with no telling how long it really was, Saffros spoke again but quite illogically did not stop his chanting. While the first Saffros voice still repeated the same lines simultaneously a second one whispered, "Soon, you will belong to me. Sleep now and forget forever. Fight us no more...and give yourself to your blood lust..."


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: The Ascent

It took a few confusing moments for Julia to stop yelling and orient herself in what was a most disorienting situation. The walls blurred by at a dizzying speed and she was glad that the lever at least centered her in the column before she pulled it so she wasn't losing skin sliding against anything. The tearing wind made her all but shut her eyes and combined with the funny feeling in her feet she determined something odd was happening. If she was right she was actually falling _upwards_. She wasn't positive but the wind was definitely hitting the top of her head first and not the other way around.

Forcing a hand through the considerable wind current to her face she tried to get a better look at the walls zooming past her. At this point she'd been...falling was the only word for it, falling for the better part of a minute. Whatever was going to happen to her when she reached the end of this trip the pilgrim figured that it wasn't going to be pleasant. With her present velocity there were few solutions to this problem that didn't end up with her flat as a pancake.

Another minute or so passed and she began to wonder if maybe she'd been wrong. Maybe she was falling, rising, whichever, into an abyss with no end. Perhaps it was eternal like the void under the bridge she'd crossed to get into the city. Maybe she would just fall until she starved and continued falling until her body decomposed in tiny bits mid air.

Just as she was visualizing her burial by sky dive she hit some kind gelatinous layer head first and plowed into a vat of warm goo. Everything went dark and a thick, viscous liquid filled her ears, nose and mouth. She did however slow to a halt like a bullet fired into a tube of jello after what had to be hundreds of feet. Her stomach flipped again and all the blood in her head started to rush down to her feet as the goop started to churn. Kicking wildly and unable to see Julia could do nothing but hold her breath while she had the vague sensation of being sucked down a drain. The swirling gunk quickened its motion and the pilgrim hit the side of a wall as she was funneled into a pipe. Tumbling head over heels through it at a high rate of speed she was on the verge of being unable to hold her breath any longer when she burst free.

Light erupted around her as she landed on a pool of the goo and skidded some twenty feet in a ball of arms and legs. Coughing out some of the fluid she gasped for air as she rolled on her stomach to try to expel the foreign substance. The muck was in her eyes and ears but she focused on breathing before wiping it away. Spending a minute laying there recovering she pulled the goo out of her orbital sockets with her fingers and looked around at her new surroundings with blinking eyes.

She had been ejected from an old looking brass tube that had ceased pumping out any more fluid. Wallowing in a greenish, somewhat solid but still runny substance the odd fluid strangely enough a slight plant smell to it. The goop was nothing compared to where it had landed her though. The chamber she was in, incredibly, was a massive, exotic garden. Meticulously cared for with paths of white gravel in orderly rows the plant life was something to behold.

Rare Earth plants and flowers were mixed in with flora not of this solar system. Fern like plants with purple spirals and neon green veins thirty feet tall rested under the swaying boughs of hundred foot trees with glowing white and purple tendrils hanging down by the thousands. A single, sail shaped blue plant rocked in the gentle breeze as it towered over sea anemone flowers the size of huts. The sound of running water was accompanied by the sun showering everything from above. Her nose was practically stinging with the sweet smells, odors and perfumes unlike anything on earth.

The walls of the chamber were covered in moss and other plants she couldn't even begin to classify. The greenery rose up farther than she could see to the shining ceiling above which poured a welcoming, soft light down. A short distance away at the center of the room suspiciously similar in diameter to the column that had brought her here was a swirling staircase that rose hundreds of feet into the air. Small viewing platforms had been built into the staircase which was made of a gleaming white stone that almost glowed in the affable radiance from above.

Climbing to her feet Julia looked down at her green soaked clothes and gave up trying to stay clean. Somewhere in her mad journey she'd lost her only weapon and was down to her fists. At this point Julia was surprised to still have her boots on but at least her much maligned pocket light was still there. Squishy with green stuff she peeled off her boots and then socks as well. The warm, inviting rocks did not hurt to walk on as she headed for the stairwell. That such a place could exist in Nothing's world was simply amazing given what she'd already experienced.

Walking along the beautiful and lush paths she stopped in front of an alien plant bearing a purplish red fruit the size of a basketball and shaped like a sunflower seed. Feeling it in her hands she discovered that it was not nearly as rough or hard as it looked. Hungry but not enough to eat an unidentified fruit she said aloud, "Probably make me sick anyway."

"_Not so._" came a voice in her skull. Immediately crouching and putting her hands up Julia whipped her head around for the source of the sound. In truth though there was no actual auditory sensation as she felt rather than heard the echo in her mind. There also didn't appear to be anything around her but the idyllic, calm serenity of the garden.

"Whose there?" she growled.

"_I am._" it whispered in her brain. "_The fruit is quite delicious, Julia Stormson. It will give your lips a tingling feeling as you eat it from the gentle toxin that discourages insects._"

"How do you know me? Where are you?" she demanded.

"_You are the second most important person in Nowhere. It is my business to know._" the voice said with just a hint of loftiness. "_And you see me before you._"

"You're...the fruit plant?" she gaped.

"_I am Tower. I am the seat of Lord Nothing's throne and the apex of his might. There are no matters within my walls which escape my notice._"

"Oh, the tower. A talking tower. Huh." Julia said thoughtfully.

"_I do not speak in your phonetic sense but yes, I am sentient._"

"Where's your master then?"

"_At the top of the stairs before you, waiting._"

"He couldn't just send me a taxi? I'm tired as hell." she sighed.

"_Sky travel is excessively dangerous in my air space._" it informed her.

"So's the ground route if you didn't know." she scoffed. "Is this thing going to kill me?" she pointed at the fruit.

"_No, I was quite truthful about it._" the building said indignantly.

"All right, it's your ass if anything happens to me." she said as she pulled if from the stalk. "Where's this bad boy from anyway?"

"_Pandora._"

"Uh...where?"

"_A moon of the gas giant Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri A system five light years from Earth._"

"What...how is that even possible?" she made a face.

"_All things are possible for the Spirit of the Night Air._" it replied smugly.

"Except for a safe trip.." she rolled her eyes. Holding the fruit with both hands she continued towards the stairwell as she bit into it. Slightly tough but juicy it had a flavor that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Almost electric in sourness but with overbearing sweetness she could not compare it to anything she'd ever had before. Stopping in her tracks she tore into the strange fruit like a wild animal devouring its prey. The juice gently stung her lips and tongue which only added to the fruit's otherworldly zest.

"Whuff..." she took in a breath after a few seconds of cramming as much of the fruit down as she could.

"_As I said?_" the voice asked.

"You weren't kidding. Can I get some of this for the road?"

"_That would be most difficult._" it answered humorlessly.

"Why's that?"

"_Your crossing over was dangerous enough._"

"Crossing over...wait, am I dead!?" she freaked out.

"_No! No. Apologies for using alarming nomenclature._" the building hastily responded. "_I was referring to the planar transfer initiated when you asked for help._"

"Oh. Okay. Good." she said and tried to play off the sudden unsteadiness of her knees. "So um...I just have to ask to come here?"

"_It is quite a bit more complicated than that, Juia Stormson. Your arrival benefited from good luck and timely resonances._"

"What does luck have to do with it?"

"_I fear it would be too technical and obscure to attempt an explanation._"

"I'm not an idiot, Tower. Try me." she challenged.

"_Very well. When we received your call for a planar transfer the Master initiated a bore hole style drilling through the appropriate cross-planar subverse, taking care to time the transfer with our own flux state. Executing a reality shift through what the Master has dubbed the 'psycho-kinetic dermal membrane' he aligned the traces of the Living Receiver's bio-wavelength with a location here and there and when the dualities lined up he moved you through the momentary rift-_"

"Okay, you know what, never mind." she interrupted it. "I understand, it was hard."

"_Much harder than moving you during your home town's own reality shift. When the membrane is already in motion it is considerably easier to both take from and return to Silent Hill_."

"You're talking about the darkness coming."

"_Precisely_."

"Huh. Makes sense in a very weird way. I think."

Continuing up the staircase she passed by a beautiful statue of a minotaur teen feet high made of marble that would have been right at home in a museum of antiquities. "Why is this place even here? It's so...elegant. Lovely." she wondered.

"_Not everything the Master creates is of darkness._" the tower reprimanded her.

"Yeah, not sold on that quite yet. What can you tell me about him?"

"_I cannot speak on such matters. You will have the chance to ask Him yourself soon enough._"

"Can't or won't?" she queried.

"_Cannot. Not only is Lord Nothing's word law, it binds this reality. I can no more defy his wishes than you can gravity._"

"Except when gravity stops working right..." she said to herself. "Can you answer questions about yourself? Or Nowhere in general?" she asked as she climbed step after gleaming step.

"_Yes._"

"Okay..." she thought as she passed by a shrub that appeared to be made entirely of gold. "How many floors do you have?"

"_Depending on your definition of 'floor', close to two thousand._"

"Yeesh. How tall are you?"

"_Five and a half malms._"

"Uh...how much is that in Earth distance?"

"_Apologies. Kilometers or miles?_"

"Miles."

"_Nearly five Earth miles._"

"Dang. How is that possible? Wouldn't you...fall over or something?"

"_Much of the district around me and my own composition is made of a unique material called darkstone. It is extremely strong._"

"I drove through a wall of it earlier."

"_No, that was a normal kind of rock erected by the denizens of Nowhere. Real darkstone would have killed you._"

She raised her eyebrows in belated concern at the audacity of the two stunt drivers she met. "You gotta be kidding me...what about the air? Shouldn't it be super thin this high? Wouldn't wind be a problem?"

"_On Earth, yes. The Great Kewahqu has decreed that changes in air pressure and content are not effective up to and some distance past my summit.._"

"He can just...do that?"

"_Without his orders the air here would be inhospitable to life. With them, we are at conditions identical to sea level on your planet._"

"This gets crazier the more I learn." Julia shook her head. "What about all the fighting? The tolls, the bridges, the constant air battles? What's it all for?"

"_Tensions are high because of the Lightening. It is a stream of coronal mass ejection that will temporarily dissipate the cloud layers around me but nowhere else. It is the one chance every solar year for residents of Nowhere to collect light._"

"What the...coronal...what light?" she stammered.

"_Light is the standard power source and currency of Nowhere. It is traded, bartered and stolen all year but for a few glorious minutes it is free in my immediate area. The many factions will be fighting for every inch of space in order to collect as much as possible. Currently there are four battalion sized conflicts on my floors to secure prime collecting space. I do hope my carpeting is not terribly stained._" it explained.

Julia had to shake her head as she continued going up. Looking over the railing the view was spectacular. Of everything that she had seen she would regret not being able to explore this place the most. Stopping to rest at one of the look out points around the halfway mark she found another statue. It was an austere woman in a military suit of some kind who stood with a menacing glare and a hand hovering over her chest knife.

"Whose this?"

"_The Boss. Soldier, female, second greatest of all time._"

"Where did the statue come from?"

"_The __Kci-Athussos __carved it himself._"

"Really?"

"_He is quite prolific. He also tends to this garden himself._"

"Hmm...can you tell me if he gardens in Silent Hill too?"

"_If you are referring to the hedges in your Rosewater Park, then yes._" it revealed.

"Aha! Chuck was right!" she laughed. "I still can't see him with a pair of shears like some kind of evil landscaper though... you know, the more you tell me about your master the farther I am from figuring him out. Who would have thought that he was the one keeping up the park? Victor's going to be beside...himself..." she trailed off when she thought about him.

"_Is something wrong?_"

"No, I...I don't know if he's alive. I'm really worried about him and Chuck. The mercenaries got them and they would have had me too if I didn't come here...I just feel so helpless. I don't know what's happening to them."

"_Have faith in the Lord of Obsidian, Julia Stormson._" Tower advised her. "_He will not fail you, will not falter. He would give his dying breath for the misty land you call home._"

"You sound like you admire him." she said in surprise.

"_He has stood alone against the darkness since before you were born. Not for fame or glory or pay but because someone has to. Is this not the definition of a hero?_"

"A hero doesn't massacre people. A hero doesn't murder people for a blood ritual." she asserted.

"_Then what about you, Julia Stormson? Would you take up the defense of Silent Hill and give your life to it? Or will you simply criticize the Master for doing it in your absence? I doubt you complained when Victor Rosencrantz was alive to repeatedly save you due to the benefactor you continue to besmirch._"

She thought about it and could not give the building an answer. Who indeed if not her or Victor or Chuck? Who would even want to stay in Silent Hill to keep the cultists out? She had always harbored the notion that Victor wanted to return home for precisely this even after all the time they spent away from the ghost town.

"_I apologize_." Tower said remorsefully. "_I was overly harsh. I am merely defending my lord's honor._"

"No, you're right." Julia said. "Your master, he's a monster, no doubt about it. But a monster we can point at the bad guys at least."

Sighing the pilgrim climbed to her feet. "How much farther?"

"_500 feet, Julia Stormson._"

Wearily resuming her solitary sojourn she headed farther towards the top of the madman's mad home.

* * *

Ahead of him was a gray, expansive cityscape that swayed in unison like grass in the breeze. Coming down the cracked and broken street in a heavily reinforced car with a bulletproof, glass stall was a platypus dressed up like the pope. It waved its tail at him as he stepped into a phone booth ringing incessantly. Sure didn't see much of those anymore these days so he waved back and answered the phone.

Yes?

"You have to wake up! The more real you think this is the stronger their hold gets!" a very familiar voice said.

Who is this?

"Your higher thought process!" the shrill voice answered but he didn't know anyone by that name. Weirdo. Hanging up the phone he skipped out onto the sidewalk which was likely made out of candy. Ahead a tough looking goldfish was leaning against the side of a 50s car and talking to the driver. As he walked by the fish eyeballed him and said, "What are you lookin' at pinky?"

Walking quickly away to avoid an ichthylogical incident he went into the first building he could find. There he was in a small room with three men that seemed familiar though he was sure they didn't have faces.

"There's a hammer over there." one of them said.

Cool.

"Go ahead and pick it up."

Grabbing the hammer he felt the weight in his hands. There were also a few nails on the table and he picked those up too.

"Pound them into the wall there, would you kindly?" the man asked. Wondering why the faceless man didn't do it himself if he liked nails so much he nevertheless complied and joyfully pounded the nails in.

"Your name is Steve isn't it?" the man asked.

Nope, pretty sure it wasn't.

Trudging through a sewer he picked up a filthy newspaper. He read it for several minutes even though the words had been replaced by symbols he was both very familiar with and had never seen before. The sewer was well lit by a slightly green tinted light despite the odd fact that there were no noticeable lights around. In a moment he heard a clip clopping sound coming from down the tunnel.

A horde of knife wielding marionette puppets emerged from the gloom ahead. Their blank stares, inexplicable 18th century clothes and loose strings dragging on the ground behind them terrified him beyond anything he could imagine. Running the other way like a frightened animal he screamed as the dead eyed dolls sluggishly scraped along after him.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25: The Deal

As the weary pilgrim reached the top of the stairs the blinding white steps passed from the brightly lit garden into pure darkness. The illumination quickly evaporated and soon Julia was feeling along the wall of the staircase in pitch black. Her bare feet were cold and the chilly floor wasn't helping the situation.

"Tower?" she said in the dark so thick she couldn't see her own hand.

"_I am here, Julia Stormson_."

"Is it far?"

"_You are close. This layer of adamantium you pass through now forms the floor of the throne room._"

"Right...um...Tower? What does he want from us? What should I do?"

"_Just be yourself, Jewel._" the building said and used her own pet name. "_Be courteous and don't lie. I've seen terrible consequences for those who would attempt to deceive the Greatest Evil._"

"Huh. And do you really care what happens to me?" she said skeptically.

"_Of course I do, as much as any other sentient creature. I do not enjoy the thought of someone I was conversing with pleasantly as they walked through me suffering a gruesome death only to be brought back to life and killed again. I am not allowed a presence in the throne room...I will only see what becomes of you later._"

"Interesting...compassion from the building but none from the man himself."

"_Never forget what and who he is. Save for the Dark One who opens and closes the gate to Silent Hill there are none more lethal than the Spirit of the Night Air. That is my final piece of advice for you._"

The building went quiet as she worked her way farther up to its impossibly high summit. Coming at last to a thick wooden door it required pushing with her full body weight to move. Light returned and Julia slipped past the door into a gigantic chamber much like the one below.

This one though was devoid of color, beauty or charm. High, sloping walls covered with dead ivy converged on a point at the very top and center of the room hundreds of feet up. A thin plank made of whitish objects met the walls where Tower came to a point and ran down from there to the floor in front of her. Atop a flight of stairs as wide as the room the plank ended in the back of an exquisite throne.

Trampling over a fresh, soft green leaves that carpeted the cold floor she reached the steps and could see that the throne was indeed made mostly of skulls just like Victor had reported. The rest of it was metal, finely crafted and wrought by hand, twisted and gnarled like an old tree. It took her a moment to realize that the metal was the same greenish black material that Victor's suit had been made from. Taken aback by this at first she slowly understood why the knight had left out this crucial detail. He probably did not want to know the answer as to where it came from any more than she did.

Lounging in the great throne and seemingly bemused by her presence sat Nothing, the man of the hour, the lunatic who took over the asylum. Peering at her with his one good eye and suffering from a distinct lack of emotion he didn't seem to want to talk even as he rose from his seat. The buckles of the straight jacket he wore clanked against each other but when they settled the silence was overbearing. Julia felt the need to break it even if it wasn't for a good reason.

"So uh...do I bow or do I curtsy?" she joked uncomfortably.

"Kneel." he commanded with that grating voice which came from every direction. Julia found herself going to one knee almost involuntarily, the way one extends their hand without thinking when offered an unexpected envelope. Looking down at her own legs like they had betrayed her when she looked up the shade was gone.

"Rise." he said as he stepped out from behind her and again Julia curiously obeyed.

"What are you doing to me?" she asked through a sudden headache.

Circling around to the front of her he gently moved her hair from her face. Brushing the side of her cheek with his fingers he lovingly swept over to her chin and dragged his thumb down across it with a gentle caress. She did not recoil like she should have but for whatever reason she could still speak normally. "Are you going to rape me?" she asked.

"Battle brings death. Death brings sorrow." the Fater said while he circled her predatorily. "The living may not hear them but make no mistake. The dead are not silent."

"If you're dead then why are you touching me like that?" she demanded.

"I do not care for your bestial acts." he informed her. "You sweating meat sacks are unworthy of my attention."

"Yeah? What do you call that insanity down below us?"

"Good fun." the Dark Man said gleefully and his face twisted into a grin. Julia's heart stuttered at the sight of his traumatizing smile and she sputtered as he went behind her again. She still couldn't seem to do anything but stand there though it whatever he was doing to her left her free to at least ask questions.

"Is Victor alive?" she trembled when she recovered.

"Regrettably." he answered.

"Is he okay? Is Chuck?"

He did not answer or come into her vision and Julia waited in vain for a response. Ahead the empty throne stood and she had to know about it. "The metal...the one your throne is made from. It's the same as Victor's armor. Where does it come from?"

"The locus of my birth." he whispered in her ear. His hot breath smelled vaguely of damp caves and she would have shaken her head at the illogical nature of such a thing if she could.

"I don't get it." she said.

"How provincial." he said without concern as he circled in front of her. His dead eye never strayed from her face as he walked around her again.

Slightly annoyed she asked, "What's with the garden below us? Why is there when the rest of Nowhere is a giant battleground?"

"One cannot appreciate the subtleties of destruction without knowing also creation." he replied.

Unable to decide if he was being serious or feeding her nonsense Julia pressed on. "I want a straight answer. What's that ash you gave us? Where does it come from? Why did you tell us to put it on our foreheads?"

"Jonah in the whale, Noah in the Ark. What did they do just when everything looked so dark?" he asked and the pilgrim had no idea what the madman was talking about. Tapping on her shoulder Julia suddenly regained control of herself. It took her half a second to flash a blinding right cross at Nothing's chin. Catching her fist mid-air in his palm he glared at her for a second before yelling out a "Ha!" that shook the room.

"You have a fire inside you, Julia Stormson." he said almost in admiration and threw her hand away. "Your love of violence hath led thee to me. This pleases me, as you do."

Watching him warily and keeping her hands half closed in fists Julia didn't quite know what to think of that. "You and Victor Rosencrantz, sentenced to die in obscurity, could be so much more." he added.

"What are you talking about?" she said without dropping her guard.

"The holiest of rites, the bloodiest of charms. The whitest of wine in which all begins. I can lead you to the Sacraments...all thou needest do is follow them to salvation." he said seductively.

"The ritual you did?" she blinked. "Why the hell would we want to do that?"

Gesturing in the air he spread his arms out and indicated everything around them. "A scratch on the surface on what the Power of Heaven affords the faithful. The power, the immortality, the necessity...it matters not in the why, only in the do."

"You're crazier than you sound if you think we'd do that." she scoffed.

"Am I?" he smirked and her eye twitched. "All those books you took from the misty land...what do you think was in them? Why do you think your blushing bride saved them as a pack rat holds onto a shiny?"

"He kept them to make sure they didn't fall into the wrong hands." she asserted but the Dark Man only laughed. It sounded like throat cancer grinding against gravel.

"Is that what he told you? The lies we tell the ones we love..." the shade shook his head.

"All right then dickhead, you tell me." she snarled.

"How is it do you think Victor Rosencrantz knows so much of the Sacraments? Was it the teachings of Marcus Stone? Or could it be that he was searching for the necessary tools himself all these years?"

Her jaw hit the floor and Julia made a tiny squeaking sound instead of saying something. No, that was impossible. It had to be a lie, it had to! There's no way Victor would try something like that! If it was true then all the time they were together he hid this from her. No, she couldn't believe it...

"I...no, you're lying." she said stubbornly.

He shrugged and turned his palms up at her. "Deny it all you want but your heart knows the truth of things. Ask him, ask your beloved and see if his eyes can convince you of his innocence."

"But...he's not a murderer." she reasoned.

"Is he not?" the shade boomed. "How many have fallen to his blade? A hundred? A thousand? A killer kills. Even you, not so clean. Your fratricide is not unknown to me, lonely pilgrim."

Her eyes narrowed and Julia bristled at this man of all people judging her. "What the hell do you know!?" she snapped.

"Much. Hide from him, hide from all, hide from self but there is no hiding from me." he said and lowered his one eyed gaze to her level. "I know of thee, Julia Stormson. I know thou only feels alive here, in travesty, fire and blood. That your pitiful, wastrel existence outside the misty land is the true dream and only in the sanctity of combat does your mind clear, your spirit soar. Deny this truth no longer...the savage nature of your homeland burns bright in your veins."

She opened her mouth to say something in protest but she could not fully defend herself. There was that part of her which was glad to be going back to Silent Hill again and leave their ordinary lives behind. It was something she could never admit to Victor and hardly admit to herself...but it was true.

"Do not be ashamed, not here, not with me." he almost purred. "That flame, that undying joy in the midst of chaos...when you look inside for that warlike urge you will find me waiting for you with a helping hand..."

She didn't want to give the Fater the satisfaction of being right. "Your words are poison." she spat.

"And yours I recall perfectly. Your promise is binding, little leaf. Forget it not." he said mysteriously.

"Promise?"

"A knife, two stones, a misty day. I remember, Julia Stormson. I always remember." the Dark Man warned. "Flowers for your sires, blood for blood to blood."

"You...you were there that day?" she said in shock. He was talking about her last day in Silent Hill after escaping that terrible prison and the words she spoke to her parent's graves.

"Long have I watched over you. " he nodded and something clicked in her mind. "_Pastor pascit gregem._"

"You sent me that newspaper clipping. You were the one on the phone who sent me to the basement in Brookhaven." she accused.

"I only directed you where you needed to go..." he bowed low. "But luring thee under the earth to that place of rust and gallows, 'twas not me."

"Who then?"

"Ah, but you met and buried him long ago in that place where no light shines and no evil goes forgotten." the Dark Man said in sing song voice that did not match his words.

He was of course referring to her brother and the prison below Lake Toluca where she and Victor almost died. She remembered Alex saying something about voices guiding him before she killed him. "Was it you? You driving him mad?" she asked evenly.

"That tortured soul brought no tribute to Nowhere." he shook his head. "But listen I do, listen and wait. And a promise made to the dead in vain is ruin, as the dead of the misty land do not forget. They'd be so disappointed..."

"My parents? I don't think...well at least I'd like to not think they wouldn't." she said. It was true though that things hadn't just gotten bad during the attack on the Order's base, they would have been life ending had the Fater not saved her. She doubted her body would have happened to be respectfully buried by her folks. A combatant rarely had the chance to choose when and where they died...in Silent Hill her options were as limited as they came.

"You're immortal, aren't you?" she asked. He cocked his head to the side like this was a silly question and Julia admitted that it was. "I want to keep my promise. If I die somewhere...what will it cost me to be buried with my parents?"

"Thou would deal with the Lord of Obsidian?" he said and crossed his arms.

"If I have to."

"Yes...yes. What are your terms?"

"Bury me next to them. Find my brother and bury what's left of him there as well. And if Victor is dead, do the same. We'll all be together again in the end." she spelled out.

"Done." he nodded like a Persian king addressing an underling. "And you will honor me in the event of my passing the old way. Bury me deep in the loving earth of the misty land and nowhere else. Plant a sapling over my body that I might live again in the green."

"You want me to plant a tree over you?" she asked quizzically. "But you can't die."

"Do you agree?" he ignored her.

"Yes, fine, whatever."

"So begins a contract bound in blood, yours and mine." Lifting a gleaming knife that had appeared in his hand the Fater dragged it across his palm. Black blood sprang out of the wound and he handed the blade to her pommel first. Unsure if this was a good idea Julia nevertheless touched the tip of the blade on her palm and pulled. Her skin parted like water from the ultra sharp blade and she cut herself deeper than she meant to. Taking the knife back the straight jacketed shade offered his dripping hand to her.

Reluctantly reaching out to lightly grasp it Julia's hand was crushed by the Fater's grip. Her open wound came into contact with his and the cold, inky blood of the dead man hit hers almost like a living creature. Frigid, burning liquid crawled into her skin and lanced into her arm. Yelping from the shock and wrenching away the pilgrim could not escape the merciless bear trap of a hand shake she was stuck in. Tugging away from him with both hands and her whole body she couldn't move Nothing an inch as the cold darted up her arm. Creeping from her shoulder it rushed down suddenly towards her heart. The glacial stream hit her with a force akin to a physical blow and Julia's knees gave out as an uncaring Nothing continued to hold onto her.

Her chest seized up and pilgrim gasped just before simply falling over. The shade then finally let her go and Julia convulsed on the floor among the leaves as the arctic chill that had taken hold of her body slowly subsided. It was many minutes before she felt recovered enough to speak, let alone stand and Nothing loomed over her without a word.

"The...fuck...you do to me?" she coughed.

"Made true your promise. I feel your mistrust but fear me not. Us four, children of the misty land, we will end this threat to the fatherland together."

"Us four..." she echoed as her brain began to work again. Looking up at him from the floor she asked, "You were born in Silent Hill, weren't you?"

Flourishing with his hand Nothing did not verbally answer. "What about Chuck? Isn't he from Canada?"

"Ah, back to those lies of the innocent. A light inaccessible."

Gaining the strength to get to her feet Julia shivered though it was not cold. "He must have been adopted or something. Did his parents never tell him?"

"Those of the Place Of Silent Spirits find their way back to it more easily than the uninitiated."

"Why did you help him? Visit him in the hospital? I always wanted to know."

"Now, at last, the masks had fallen away. The strings of the puppets had become visible, and the hands of the prime mover exposed." he rambled to no avail.

"You're a pain, you know that?" she sighed.

"Pain?" he gawked. "I know pain that tears at your atoms. Sings to you at night long after it has departed. So-" he cut himself off and froze as he stared off into space. Julia was going to ask what was wrong but he held up a hand and no sound came from her voice when she tried to use it.

"Victor Rosencrantz suffers." he reported breathlessly.

"What!?" she said and had her voice back. "Go help him!"

"He is well hidden." the Fater said sadly. "He must call for me, as you did. And the Lightening must commence before the adjourning of Nowhere."

"I'll go!"

"No. Thou will wait." he decreed. "_Da patientiam_."

Waiting was the last thing Julia wanted to do if Victor was in trouble but it appeared that she didn't have much of a choice. Trapped in Nowhere for the time being she could only hope that whatever was happening to her man that it wasn't permanent.

* * *

The dolls somehow stayed one step ahead of him the whole time and lurked behind every corner. It wasn't long before he ran out of sewer and they beset him on all sides. They walked slow and clumsily but there were far too many to defeat on his own. It would take a miracle to save him now.

Back in that familiar room with those familiar people he was again holding the hammer but put it down as he was sure that he was done with it. Again the pudgy man who he simply didn't care for spoke first. "If you don't want to go back you'll be a good boy. Do you want to be a good boy?"

There were vague memories of a sewer and a thousand homicidal puppets that if he remembered correctly was no fun. He would indeed be a good boy.

"All right. What is your name?"

He rightfully didn't know his name but that hardly mattered here.

"Your name is Steve."

Steve. He repeated it but it rang hollow and untrue.

"I want you to take that nail out of the wall. Yes, that one there."

He did as he was told and pulled the increasingly familiar nail from the increasingly familiar wall.

"Now put your hand on the table, Steve. Yes, that's good. Now drive the nail through your hand."

That didn't seem like a good idea and he said so. Back in the sewer the dolls inched ever closer to him and silently promised his doom. The sound of their knives dragging along the wet brick reminded him of another sound entirely, a sound which he learned to dread long ago. A terrible monster with an oversized knife that was more of a...

Sword! He looked at his hand and that old, familiar, home made blade appeared in his hand. The puppets began to laugh in unison like a chorus of chattering wooden chairs and it was among the one of the worst things he'd ever experienced. He surged forward to meet them anyway.

Sitting in a derelict apartment in Noir York he rested in an old recliner that was close to breaking. On his right a large, open window let freezing cold air in with the light snow that was falling. In front of him was a television so old it still had knobs to change the channels. On it was a show that was compromised entirely of photos. He watched it for what seemed like hours until he saw an old photo of a house burning. His house. With his mother inside.

"You're doing well." the TV said in a friendly, comforting voice.

I am?

"Oh yes. Already the fat man is losing his grip on you." The picture on the TV changed to a demented man in black scraping the skin off of a wrist.

Never liked him anyway.

"You have to trick him. Pretend to do what he wants. Don't worry, I'm with you." it said and the photo changed to a picture of a pretty girl with dark hair whom he cared deeply about.

Cool.

The appliance shut off and he turned to see a pink flamingo standing next to him. Its eyes were glowing red and it said, "mIRroRs ArE mOre fUn THan teLeVisIOn." in a harsh, undulating voice.

Are they?

The flamingo's eyes burned like lit cigarettes and bored deep into his soul. "th3 Fl3Sh 0F f4l13n aNg3ls."

Stretched out on some kind of machine he waited, naked and alone. Limbs restricted and body chained in place a large sign above him read 'OBEY' but not who or what. After a moment the chute above him began rattling and out of it poured a deluge of red hot coals. They hit him by the dozen and he screamed while smelling his own burning flesh.

Back in the familiar room he it was just him and the pudgy man. Knowing now that there was some connection between the fat man and the pain he admitted that the TV had been telling the truth.

"Hello Steve." the man said.

Hi there.

"Will you put the nail through your hand now?"

Oh yes.

Pretending, just like he was told. Placing his hand on the table he lined up the nail with the center of his palm and drove it down. There was no pain and the pudgy man seemed to be pleased. "Great job. Now we're going to play another game. You're going to kill everyone in the room. Don't worry, they're bad people."

He slaughtered entire room of people, animals, monsters over and over again. Sometimes they were humanish, sometimes they weren't. He made sure all of them fell so he wouldn't go back to that room with the coals. Once or twice he lost and was burned, forced to start over again. Something told him it was okay and another part of him enjoyed the carnage.

Damn that pudgy man! All of this was somehow his fault. He wished he never met-

He stopped fighting, stopped moving as the realization hit him. The room with all the bodies disappeared and he was strapped to a bed. There was an old man and a pudgy man and...he...his name was Saffros.

Victor woke up and just like that his tortured dream was over, but he was still screaming.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26: The Lightening

"Why are we waiting to help? What's happening to him?" Julia demanded. The Dark Man had begun walking away from her back to his throne as if she hadn't said anything.

"Hey! Answer me!" she said angrily. Following him up the steps she walked behind him until he came to his throne. Instead of sitting down in it he jumped onto the back of it feet first where gravity aligned itself on the wrong axis just for him. Standing there in disbelief she watched the top of his head as he strolled casually up the back of the skull throne towards the ceiling.

"Hey! What's going on!" she called out.

"Abandon not your wayward children of Ivalice, but deliver us from our sins, that we might know salvation." he said as he walked vertically away from her.

The top of the tower shuddered as he drew closer to it and the sound of thunder striking nearby rattled the whole building. The air popped and crackled, positively charged with potential energy. Suddenly the entirety of Tower turned completely transparent as every inch of black stone went as clear as glass. She could see out over the darkened land and the multitude of tiny lights coming from far below them. Above her the large ball that served as a lightning rod was crackling with electricity, sending off sparks and and feeding into Tower in rivulets of current. Looking below her Julia could see the garden through the floor and the balconies coming out of the sides miles away.

Craning her head up just in time to see the Dark Man entering the lightning ball from the bone plank leading to it Julia grew worried about what was happening. There were glinting squares everywhere below them and dozens floating in the sky around Tower that were kept aloft by machine, beast and mixtures of the two. The walls of the building were buzzing with energy and all of Nowhere seemed to be primed for the event she kept hearing about.

There was no warning for what came next. The black sky began to glow above her and slowly she became aware of a red dot growing above them. It took a few moments for it to materialize as a fiery blaze ripping a massive, cylindrical scar through the atmosphere. Watching it in horror Julia realized the phenomenon was rushing towards them at an alarming rate and after a few seconds the clouds could no longer contain it. Tunneling a great swath through the miles of moisture the fire penetrated the eternal gloom of Nowhere and turned the firmament red. Rushing at them was a jet of rolling flame coming down on the black city as a world ending catastrophe sent from angry gods above.

The sparking orb atop Tower went dark and then something even more incredible happened. The destruction coming down on them from the sky was pulled against its will to the black ball above her where Nothing had gone in. Inexorably drawn in with the power of a singularity all the heat, light and energy were sucked into the orb with startling speed. The pillar of flame rushed to the ball and even the light in the room seemed to be seeping towards the event horizon above. When the red flame expired everything went dark again but only for a half second. Then the ball released what it had taken and more in an explosion of light that nearly blinded the pilgrim.

Crying out she shielded herself from the terrible splendor of a sun erupting into existence only a few hundred feet away. Closing her eyes and getting her arms in front of her did little to help as the room heated up to baking from the ferocious effulgence bearing down on it. Close to a full minute passed before the feeling of being blasted with radiation faded much like moving from direct sunlight into shade. Daring to open her eyes Julia looked above her in fear of what she was going to see.

The orb overhead was red hot with spent energy but issued forth no more brilliant, overpowering light. Outside of Tower a circle of cloud cover had been blown away directly above the city nearly its exact diameter and shape. A miles wide column of light shone down on the rainy city which for once glistened in the providence of a nearby star. Beyond the thick, carved out cloud layer was an azure sky and a blazing sun much, much closer than Earth's that occupied most of the visible sky. She could make out the celestial body's shifting, roiling surface and had to wonder why they weren't scorched by its proximity.

Looking down on the city she saw a million reflective mirrors soaking up the kindly light falling down on them. The area was much more impressive in the daylight despite the fact that it was almost completely covered by panels, solar cells and mirrors. It was a beautiful sight in every direction; below her feet in Nothing's garden she saw flowers blooming and plants curling up towards the ample radiance above.

All out in the sky and up in the heavens she saw little white dots and some were closer than others, bigger than others. Already stupefied by what had happened so far she realized with a gasp that these were the same blank spots she had seen in the dark version of Silent Hill. Whatever was plaguing the ghost town had extended to here as well. Now she understood that it was not just their world that was hanging in the balance but Nowhere too.

Slowly from the edges of the cleared circle the clouds began to close back in. Unable to turn away from the spectacle she watched the gray began to fill in above them as a wound closes itself. Despite the dominating presence of the sun the clouds quickly reclaimed the blue and soon the sun was behind a screen of mist. Progressing more quickly the clouds grew thicker and thicker as the light grew dimmer and dimmer. Soon even the sun's rays were swallowed up by the ravenous clouds and Nowhere was once again plunged into darkness. Almost thirty seconds passed before the patter of rain began to strike the glassy exterior of Tower and it too faded back to its opaque state.

The pilgrim was dumbfounded as the Dark Man began to walk down from the ceiling towards her. She could not think of anything to say as he made it to the throne she was standing by and jumped back down onto the same floor as her as if he'd never left. Radiating power with an aura that bordered on unbearable Julia felt microscopic standing next to the Fater. His straight jacket was singed and charred as was the tattered strap over his eye. Reaching up he tugged the disintegrating piece of cloth away and revealed a fully formed eye, whole and complete. Brushing the straight jacket away it fell to bits off of him to reveal a plain black shirt covering a highly muscled torso.

"That...was amazing." she breathed.

"The Sacraments affordeth any dream you can dream." he said and extended a hand that rippled the air around them. "Ahtl tla-chee-nollee."

Reaching her hand out to accept his she said, "Fire and water, flood and flames."

Taking her behind the throne she was shocked to find someone chained to the back of it with thick loops of barbed wire and shipyard sized metal links. The captive was hooded and did not make a sound as Julia passed by it in wonder. Coming to a semicircle of thresholds built into the back wall of the chamber he brought her to a circular stone equidistant from wall to throne. The thresholds were pretty but didn't seem to be going anywhere other than the black wall they were built into.

"This one will take thee home." he gestured at one of the frames. It immediately lit up and the plain wall dissolved into a smoking, misty red portal. Another portal lit up unbidden far to the left and Nothing let her hand go, much to Julia's disappointment.

"'Tis time to take back what is mine." he promised with a maniacal gleam in his eye. "Return to the misty land and await us. The time for the end all of things approacheth."

"We'll stop them." Julia nodded. "We have to."

"Truth and justice lend us no troops in this war." he pointed out.

"The blank spots...they're going to erase everything aren't they?"

Nothing came as close as she'd ever seen to him being sad. "The dissonances of multiple worlds is becoming too much for the psychosphere to handle. Either we stop this pretender, he stops us or everything, everywhere perisheth. Never forget that only I stand in between thee and the Flood."

"Ugh...who is that over there?" she put a hand to her suddenly aching head and motioned towards the captive.

"Pay it no mind." he ordered. "Sins of the past rarely go unpunished."

Taking off at a sprint faster than humanly possible the ruler of Nowhere literally dove into his portal at top speed. The red mist evaporated in swirling air and it returned to a plain wall while hers was still very much open and beckoning her.

Taking a step towards her exit the pilgrim looked back over her shoulder at the prisoner chained so thoroughly to the throne. She knew that she shouldn't and that she was told not to but her curiosity was too great. She turned back.

He woke to the sound of his own screams. Bolting upright he looked at the hazy world around him as his head pulsed in pain. Half forgotten memories of torture, flamingos and blood tugged at his mind and Victor only knew for certain that sometimes was going to die for what they were doing to him. Eyes focusing he found himself in a small surgical theater and rapidly deduced that he was in one of the town's demented hospitals. Neither was particularly pleasant to be locked up in but the chance to escape was better than Saffros' dream worlds by far.

Looking down at his aching hand he saw it was bandaged up and had to search his memory for what had happened. Vaguely recalling something involving a hammer he knew someone had driven a nail through his hand. Head swimming and body knotted up the knight had never wanted to kill so badly in his entire life. Certainly the mercenaries who put him here and their incredibly stupid commander but none more than Saffros and Marcus Stone. Who knows what they would have done if he'd not managed to just barely break their hold on him.

So confident were his captors that he was no longer a threat they had not even bothered replacing his restraints. A fatal mistake on someone's part as the knight swung his feet down to the floor and scoured the room for a weapon. Sitting on a nearby table was the metal apparatus Saffros had used to hold his eyes open while hypnotizing him. Checking the metal legs Victor found that they screwed in and he lifted the table with his shoulder to get at one of them. The healing wound in his hand tore open as he worked but he ignored the pain as he unscrewed one of the posts holding the table up. The metal device slid down and crashed to the floor as he worked the leg off before setting the now three legged table on its side.

Feeling the weight of the blunt object in his hands he checked the door only to find it locked. So someone had not completely trusted him to be trapped in their mental prison after all. No matter. Starting to examine the lock for how exactly he was going to defeat it the sound of approaching boots made Victor freeze where he stood. Taking up a position at the side of the doors and raising the table leg in the air he listened to the jangling of keys just a few feet away. The door then unlocked and into the room an helmetless mercenary stuck his unprotected head in. The man had a moment to see that the gurney was empty before Victor stuck him in the temple. Teetering for a second he fell face first when Victor swung the metal leg at the back of his head.

Jumping onto the mercenary the deranged knight beat the other man until blood ran from his skull and the leg was bent out of shape. Breathing heavily and the wild beat of his murderous heart nowhere near satisfied Victor looked around for more company but was alone. Slipping the mercenary's keys into his jeans he took the man's sidearm and fiddled with it to find the safety. He wasn't especially comfortable with guns but without bulletproof armor he was at an extreme disadvantage facing the enemies here with only melee weapons.

Stealing down the corridor the knight studied the layout of the building and found that he could not recall exactly where he was. Trying as best he could to see the mental image of the maps of the two hospitals he was dismayed to find that they just wouldn't come to mind. Summoning his considerable mental prowess he made himself remember at least the outline of the first floors of the hospitals in town. He could barely do this even though he'd studied them a hundred times to permanently implant the images in his head.

Rage welled up in him and Victor knew that Saffros was to blame for this lack of acuity. Guiding himself instead by the long dormant exit signs he headed left and down the hospitals main hallway. Sneaking forward he halted when he heard a voice from around the corner. There were a couple of different men talking but it was the third one that made him subconsciously clench his teeth. The whining, sniveling voice of Saffros came floating through the air and Victor's brain seethed with hatred. Creeping to the side of the wall to get as far as he could without being noticed he swept around the corner pistol first into the large room ahead.

Sitting on the couches of the long abandoned day room of the hospital were a couple of the mercenaries, a robed cultist and the hypnotist Saffros. Judging from their casual demeanor they had been taking a break and were expecting their erstwhile associate instead of a vengeful knight.

Victor shot the first mercenary in the head and the pop echoed in the large room as the men realized too late what was happening. Blood exploded over the sitting men and shock turned to a wild scramble to escape as Victor shot three more times at the second mercenary. The first two missed but the third tagged the armored guard in the neck as the cultists dove for cover. Arterial spray jumped into the air as the doomed guard clutched at his quickly departing vital fluids. Turning the gun at the couch the hypnotist had gone behind Victor fired until a bluish wall of light sprang up between them. The knight's expert eye knew a ward when he saw one as the cultist stood to dust himself off. Watching Victor he slid a piece of paper into his robes for safe keeping as Saffros dared peek up from behind the furniture. The knight popped an ineffectual round off anyway to make himself feel better but it hit the impenetrable wall and fell to the floor.

"You woke up." the fat man announced needlessly.

"Your parlor tricks have run their course." Victor snarled. "I'm going to dissect you..."

"Bold words, boy." the hypnotist said confidently. "You may have broken my control once but we'll see how strong you are after months, years of therapy. You can't get through to us and you've no doubt alerted the rest of our chattel. Fantastic strategy."

"Hmm...you're right." the knight pondered. "There's no way I can get past this ward now that you've stolen my ashes...but I know someone who can help." he smiled fiercely.

"Who?"

"Nothing, Fater, master of Nowhere, bane of the Order and guardian of Silent Hill, I call on you. The time for judgment is long over due." Victor pronounced to the open air.

"Your phantom savior? He will be no help to-"

The lights in the room dimmed as a rumbling, creaking sound accompanied the shuddering of the very walls around them. Saffros went pale and Victor could only mock him in triumph. Throwing the gun to the side he said, "Cower, cower and prepare for your death, meatsack. If you are lucky he will kill you swiftly but you won't be lucky today. Not after what you did to me."

The sound a long, tortured crow's caw reverberated from somewhere far in the distance and the two cultists shared a look of panic. The second one began preparing spells that would not save him as the grinding disharmony around them came to a halt and the lights returned to normal.

"The multiplying villianies of nature do swarm upon him..." the Fater said as he stepped out of the corner of the room into the peripheral of Victor's vision like he was there all along. Gone was the bandage over his eye and straight jacket, replaced by a black leather harness wrapped around his torso in thick straps. Holstered onto his back were eight off-white, long, criss-crossed spikes with a wicked sharpness that resembled a pair of wings poking out from behind his back.

"Took your damnable time." Victor grumbled but in truth he'd never been happier to see the shade.

"Stay back, demon!" Saffros said shrilly and Nothing strode over to the knight with a scabbard and blade clenched in his fist. Staring down the cultists he raised the weapon to Victor without taking his eyes off his prey. Heavier than the last one this was clearly a different kind of weapon. The cross piece was a fanged skull and four stabbing spikes made up the hand guard. The blade was wavy and came to a needle sharp point at the end as Victor cast the scabbard away.

"Hmm..." the Fater said as he examined the ward. "Child's play."

"What are you-"

Smoke exploded from where the the shade was standing and Victor held up an arm to block the sudden cloud. From the other side of the room the Fater came crashing in through one of the day room's windows and rolled up next to a very bewildered cultist. The otherworld assassin reached the robed man as the adept enacted a powerful rune and a burst of white hot flame erupted from the man's finger tips. The gout hit the Fater square in the chest as he charged forward and it momentarily stopped his advance.

When the flame stopped it did not seem affect the assailant in the slightest and reaching out with a smoking hand the ghost snapped the mortified cultist's neck. The blue barrier in the room fell and the shade turned to Saffros to say, "Fire? I was born of this."

"Wait! He knows where Stone is!" Victor said to stop him from killing the hypnotist too soon.

"Harken to me!" the Fater roared at the heavy set man. "Where is your master and his charlatan sacrament maker?"

"The island! On Lake Toluca! Just don't kill me!" Saffros pleaded. "Master Stone kept him secluded there!"

"Where's my friend? The curly haired kid?" Victor demanded.

"Base, basement! Please, I don't know anything else!"

"So then you have outlived your usefulness. Fater?"

"Que quieres en la vida?" the Dark Man answered.

"He must suffer to his last breath." Victor decreed coldly.

"As you wish..."

"No! No please! Don't leave me with him! No!" Saffros begged but his pleas fell on deaf ears. The Fater held the fat man down and pried his mouth open while the knight watched with grim satisfaction. Saffros gurgled and howled as the attacker ripped his tongue out with his bare hand. Holding it up to the sky like an offering to vacant gods Nothing was grinning from ear to ear. Turning away and bringing his new blade up to bear Victor headed the way he came and sincerely hoped there were many more mercenaries left inside the hospital. The mangled screams of the cultist followed him down the hall and for once he could almost enjoy the sound.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27: The Cup Runneth Over

Slowly coming up to the prisoner Julia was unsure what to do next. Bound by chains a foot thick with vicious barbed wire cutting into his limbs the hooded man wasn't going anywhere any time soon. Dressed in mottled tatters and lacking shoes he was apparently suspended in the air as his feet dangled a few inches from the ground. The hood was sewn of black leather and slightly moist as she worked up the nerve to grip onto it. Whipping it off in one motion the man underneath blinked in the light and Julia blinked to make sure she wasn't seeing things. The man chained to the back of the throne was none other than Nothing himself.

She stared at him in confusion and he stared at her like he'd never seen another person before. "What the..." she gaped.

"Who...who are you?" he said in obvious pain. This Dark Man did not have the presence or the seductive power of the one she was used to. In fact he sounded much more normal and human unlike the other one. His eyes were alert, lively and though dark brown completely ordinary. Dirty, unkempt hair fell in his face and long, scraggly hair obscured the bottom of his face. He looked considerably older than the other version though there was little evidence that he was an old man.

"Who are you?" he repeated. His voice too was average, not scratch or grating, and though somewhat deep not nearly as much as usual.

"Me? No one...important."

"How did you get in here without being killed?" he demanded.

"Never mind that, who the hell are you?"

"Don't recognize me?" he mocked.

"You look like him. But you're not. You seem...normal."

"Of course I do." he scoffed. "I'm the sane half. He's not even copy of me anymore...he's this idealized version of himself who thinks he's master of both worlds."

"I don't even know where to start. How is this possible?" she asked.

"It's a long story and he'll be back sooner than you think." the double warned. "He'll kill you for talking to me if he finds out. Look, I don't know who you are and I don't care. But you have to end this."

"End what?"

"This, his...my fever dream. It's gone on too long. The things I've done...you can't even imagine."

"We need him...you for now." she explained. "The Order's trying to do the ritual again."

"They're still around!?" the double gasped. "How did they escape the judgment...no, never mind, that isn't important. Look, you have to stop the Order no matter what. No cost is too great. But who knows what I would do in their absence? I can't be allowed to complete the Sacraments."

"So you did kill people to make all this happen."

"I did a lot more than that, in my hubris." he said ruefully. "I'll tell you how this all happened but you have to agree to put me down."

"All right, all right, I'm listening."

"We don't have nearly enough time. There's a house out at the edge of town on Lindsey in the very corner before the forest begins. Go southwest from it into the woods. You'll find a well there...but be careful. It is a dangerous area even for Silent Hill."

"Why?"

"It's where the story began. At the bottom of the well you'll find a journal, my journal. It'll tell you everything." he instructed.

"How can you be sure it's still there?" she questioned.

"Trust me, it's there. I can feel it." the double nodded.

"Why should I trust you?"

"You shouldn't. But you need that information and I need you to kill me."

"Why do you want to die….other than the whole chained up thing..." she muttered the last part.

"Oblivion is preferable to this existence." he did he best to shrug. "And the Sacraments must never be finished by me or anyone else."

"All right, I'll look, but no promises." she pointed at him.

"Don't worry. When you read it you'll want to kill me too. You'd better go pilgrim and whatever you do, don't tell him about this. He'll break your neck." the double cautioned.

"Nice guy, you are." she said as she retrieved the hood.

"You don't even know...you don't even know..." he repeated as she put it back on.

* * *

Bruised, bloody and possibly with a couple of broken bones Chuck was simply waiting around to die. He'd not given them an inch, not a word, not a plead for mercy. The mercenaries could rot here with the darkness slowly picking them off one by one. They were desperate and scared to expect him to help their situation somehow but he understood. He'd been there before when it almost became too much to take.

Suddenly the lights began to slowly dim and at first he thought they were losing power. It was soon accompanied by the creaking of the whole building and a long, harsh yowl that sounded from far away. There wasn't the familiar fog horn that always went with the change to the other world, the true version of the town, but a grinding, earth shaking vibration. No, this was something different.

The killer smiled under the gag when he realized what was going on. He'd been beaten unconscious, thrown around the room and brutalized by the mercenaries for days. Whether or not he escaped he knew now that they would be paying for it with their lives very soon. His faith in the Dark Man was absolute. The others may question his motives, his methods but Chuck knew he would never betray them, never abandon them. He was the one behind the lights and the rumbling and soon he would be killing by the dozen.

It was only a few minutes before the sounds of boots and gunfire intermingled with screams and thumps on the floor. He had no idea how many men were posted here but it would not be enough to stop the Fater, not by a long shot. The sounds of commotion and chaos continued until a guard burst into his cell with his rifle ready and pointed it at the bound captive. Six more poured into the room and slammed the door behind them.

"Fuck! He's here! He's back!"

"They said he was dead!"

"The kid's still gagged!? How did he find us!?"

"Shut up, all of you, grab the fucker, we'll take him hostage and-"

There was a thump on the door and all of the guns in the room turned towards the sound. An inhuman wail reminiscent of a bird being strangled to death came from just outside and the lone light on the ceiling burst into a thousand pieces. Plunged into sudden darkness the mercenaries fumbled for their lights while Chuck rocked himself over to the floor. Landing on his side he watched the soldiers get some of their lights on as a hand reached out from the darkness towards the pack. Gripping the back of a neck it twisted the head a few inches past where it was supposed to stop. The gurgle of the dying man and the audible _crack!_ of the bones breaking proceeded all hell breaking loose in the cell.

Guns went off and muzzle flashes lit up the room like bullet strobe lights. Fascinated and terrified at the same time Chuck watched a whitish spike explode out of a chest as he saw little snap shots of the Dark Man mid-combat. Gripping onto the barrel of a rifle he swung the incoming fire at one of the mercenaries own ally whose chest was shredded by the bullets. Yanking the gunman forward he ran his elbow into a face mask hard enough to crack the skull and suddenly jumped up out of sight. One of the mercenaries was lifted bodily off and ground and screamed as the room became darker from the lack of gunfire.

The three left swept their guns upward to see a body impaled somehow on the ceiling and suddenly the one on the left simply fell down in a heap. The gun was ripped from another's hands and Chuck caught a glimpse of the Dark Man delivering a backwards kick so hard the wall behind his victim cracked from the force as well as the fragile body caught in between. The last survivor had his rifle slashed in half by a white blade before the Fater lifted him from the ground with both arms and spiked him head first onto the stone floor. The crunch of bone and tissue was sickening but the tempest ended and the motionless, staring lights on the floor matched the bodies strewn about the cell.

Chuck blinked in the low visibility and looked down to see if he'd been shot. He seemed to be in one piece and was thankful for it. He'd had a rough enough time here as it was. The door to the cell opened and light flooded into the room. Nothing stood in the middle of the carnage and the killer could see the extent of his fury. One man was missing his head and the one who'd been lifted up was pinned to the ceiling with one of the killing spikes in his torso holding him in place. Standing directly underneath it blood was smacking the Dark Man's forehead in a rhythmic pattern but he didn't seem to notice.

"Jugh-suh."Chuck mumbled into the gag.

"Blue sky to forever, green grass blows in the wind, dancing..." the shade hummed.

Leading into the room wavy sword first came Victor. The killer was sure he'd never see the man again but it seemed they were both lucky today. "Sure made a mess of things." the knight commented dryly and quickly went over to cut the captive loose.

"You okay?" Victor asked as he helped him to his feet and pulled the gag off.

"Been better." Chuck winced and steadied himself on his friend's arm. "Julia?"

"Safe." the other man said. "Can you find your way out?"

"Probably...where are you going?"

"There's more of them in the building." Victor said while looking over his shoulder. "We have to get them all."

"Tarry here no longer, Victor Rosencrantz." Nothing interjected. "Our judgment is not yet complete."

"See you back at home." the knight nodded to Chuck.

"Let us show them the depths of your wrath." the Fater beckoned.

"Coming." Victor hefted the wicked sword and exited the room in a hurry.

"He's coming along nicely, don't you think?" Nothing smiled and Chuck could only shrink away from him.

* * *

Returning the prisoner to the state she found him in Julia went to the portal that had been lit up for her. Walking near it she wondered if she would ever come back to this place. It was not that she enjoyed the multiple life threatening situations she'd been put through but there was a feeling, a sense of uniqueness about Nowhere that she was not likely to find anywhere else. There was so much to explore, learn about, discover down there in that dark city below and she had the best seat in the house. Maybe if everything worked out in the end she might come back to visit the garden below...and maybe to ride around on the back of a dragon just once.

Putting her gloved hand out into the swirling mist she felt nothing as she went in up to the wrist. Attempting to draw her hand back she found that she couldn't. Either she was then sucked into the portal or it simply swallowed her whole but the effect was the same. The mist shot forward and enveloped her and everything she could see. The feeling was of intense vertigo coupled with falling and rising at the same time. The sensations were painful beyond her ability to fully sense but her nerve endings still felt like they were being stabbed with pins and needles. Julia had the distinct impression that she should have been dead by now and the exit from Nowhere was certainly much worse than the entrance.

Gravity found her again off to the right and she was pulled, thankfully, in only one direction. She felt like she was falling again but only for a second before she ran into a brick wall that slammed the entire left side of her body. Crying out and hearing her own voice the impact sent her rolling over the side of the wall face first onto a carpeted floor.

Groaning to herself and rolling onto her back in pain Julia felt like she'd just been stuffed into a dryer and set to tumble for an hour. Opening her eyes the pilgrim saw that it was not a wall but a long dresser she had landed on. Soft, overcast and misty light was coming in through the room's lone window giving her visibility and letting her know that there was some day left.

Carved into the ceiling directly above the dresser was a large, swirling red rune of Nothing's. She thought about the dozens of portals she had seen in the throne room and had to wonder if each of them led to a different spot in Silent Hill for the Fater to come out of. It certainly would explain a lot about his seemingly random ability to show up anywhere.

Raising herself she saw that the room once belonged to a little girl long ago. A perfectly made pink bed and rows of dolls from decades ago decorated the bedroom. Smirking at the Dark Man's brand of humor she looked outside from the second story window framed with pink curtains. She was in the residential district and not far from her parent's home if she remembered correctly. From here she could see the tree line and by random luck she was somewhat near the southernmost end of the town she needed to be.

She wanted first and foremost to know if Victor was okay but having seen what Nothing was capable of when fully powered she knew that he would take care of her man. The pilgrim wanted to know about their murderous ally more than anything and the source of his powers. She had to know if he was something Victor could turn into if he truly meant to do the ritual. Leaving the bedroom she opened the door to a second floor balcony and steps leading downstairs to the front door.

Standing before her was a faceless mannequin creature with rusty scissor halves for hands. It wasn't moving yet and she calmly gripped its left forearm above the blade. Hoisting the wriggling creature onto her shoulders she squatting just slightly and powered upward with her knees to send the hapless creature straight over the railing. It landed head first and made a loud thump as it collided with the unforgiving floor.

Another herky-jerky walking creature was coming up the stairs and Julia strolled over to meet it. Moving down a few steps she kicked it squarely in the chest and it took a brutal fall backwards down the stair case. Unhurriedly moving down to join it and stepping past the blood it left Julia knelt down on the dazed monster's chest. Holding its slightly slimy neck in place she started raining fists down on its head. The normally hardy creature's skull seemed to have some give to it and she hit harder until it split open satisfactorily with brain mush squirting out onto the floor.

Walking to the large kitchen Julia wiped her bloody hands off on the first hand towel she came to. Spending a few minutes restoring the gloves to a mirror polish she left the house through the unlocked front door and swept out to the misty streets. Heading straight to the treeline she determined that she was at the easternmost part of town and thus only had to head south. Taking a right she sauntered down the pavement in a curiously good mood.

It took the better part of twenty minutes to make it to the corner of town she sought. The trees took over at the edge of the asphalt which crumbled into a dirt patch. As her lonely footsteps echoed closer to the woods she noticed the very last house on the street. Color faded and run down like every other one there was still something different about this home. Stopping to look at it she was unable to pinpoint what it was that drew her to it. Resolving to investigate the building on the way back Julia took a deep breath before trudging into the woods.

She knew inherently to stay out of a place like this even in the day time and in the somewhat normal version of Silent Hill. Such a place would be naturally creepy, difficult to find your way out of and if the darkness came it might as well have been a burial site. Despite the danger she had to at least make an attempt to find the journal. Threading her way through the trees the solitary pilgrim tried not to think about it too much as she headed deeper and deeper into the forest.

The mist was thinner here but the thick foliage made up for it. Her own steps thundering in the oppressively quiet woods where she noticed in dismay that no birds, no insects, nothing at all seemed to be living here. Not even wind dared to intrude on the mute wood she trekked through. Every now and then she would hear a rustle of leaves or a snapping of a twig just barely in her audible range and the pilgrim would crouch as she strained to hear more. Only the crushing silence kept her company and though she knew this was a bad idea she kept going each time. She had endured much worse, much more direct opposition from the town. Let whatever was out there come and try to take her.

After half an hour or so the air began to change and the mist grew lighter. The trees became fewer and farther between until she came to a clearing that had been partially man made judging from the tree stumps. Ahead of her was the was the double spoke of surrounded by quite a bit of random debris and a few broken down semi trucks. As she moved closer the silence resonated in her ears and Julia was struck by a sense of impending doom. Something horrendous, something unspeakably evil had taken place here. She had the eerie suspicion that she was trespassing and considered backing away to leave right then. A piece of gray fabric on the ground caught her eye and even with her misgivings she had to inspect it.

Kneeling down she tugged on the cloth and pulled up a tarp or tent buried underneath years of soil, dead leaves and moss. Whatever it was it was much larger than her and there was too much combined weight on it to free from the earth's grip. Looking around she noticed similar bits of fabric poking up from the ground all about the clearing. There were also several heavily corroded generators randomly scattered around. Something strange was going on here and her growing curiosity quickly quelled her fears. What would she tell Victor when she went back? That there was an old well out in the woods they should check out because she was too scared to do it herself?

No, for better or worse, she would find the book on her own.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28: The Altar Of Leaves

Avoiding the outwardly innocuous but darkling well Julia circled around it to the group of trucks on the other side of the clearing. There were three of them, unmarked, with out of state license plates and barely staying together. Lined up next to each other in a row their giant cargo spaces were open and beckoning. She had to jump up on the trucks themselves to see all the way to the back due to her stature but there was nothing inside except piles of chains. Studying the exterior of the trucks she figured that they were old even back when they still moved. The tires had long since gone flat and when she hoisted herself up to the cabins she found that they too had moss growing in them.

Whatever occurred here had happened long ago, involved many people and at the center of it all was the well that looked so ancient it could have been built by the original settlers. There was nothing else to do but check it out and Julia was none too keen to get close to it. Psyching herself up she had gotten within twenty feet of it when she stepped on something much harder than the ground.

At first she thought it was a rock and she was partially right. Into the ground a massive stone slab at least ten feet wide had been buried. She could see the outline of it slightly protruding from the earth and she bent down to get a better look. So focused on the object she almost failed to notice that no grass was growing around it for several feet. Intrigued she starting brushing away the thick layer of dead leaves and grime that had coated the old stone.

Clearing the slab with her hands she wiped away years of weather damage and accumulated plant matter. Underneath the slab was smooth, black and appeared to be one giant, solid piece. Excavating at the edges she noticed that much of the slab was deep in the ground but there were signs of tampering. Though it must have weighed tons it looked like originally it was one rectangular piece but cuts had been made to remove pieces from it. There were even rough waves on the edges from the haphazard cuts but who would want to take pieces of this old rock?

Brushing off a plate sized area she discovered a circular pattern etched into the slab's surface that repeated itself all over the part she had cleaned. Using her fingernail she dug out the pattern to reveal a stylized leaf engraving. Find more grooves to hollow out she realized it was the same motif covering the entire slab. It was conceivable that the entire thing had been decorated like this but why?

Scraping more and more of it clear she found that the closer to the center of it she went the more notches, cuts and chips in the smooth surface there were. It would take hours to fully dig up the slab and this was time she did not have. Night would fall eventually and she most certainly did not want to be here when that happened. Pursing her lips she looked around at the ruins of the encampment but could not quite piece together the even that occurred here. Nothing said he had been born here and the double confirmed that this is where things started. Could this have been literal? Was there a camp of people here long ago, before the calamity that struck Silent Hill?

Standing up over the slab she brushed off her earthen smelling hands as best she could. About to step over the slab it caught a little bit of the ambient light that passed for day in this town. It was just a dull spot, a matte bit of the rock that happened to have light hitting it favorably but it showed that the slab wasn't perfectly black. Her throat tightened up and careful not to block the light she closely examined it up close.

The unmistakable color the light brought out in the block was a deep, dark green. Appearing black with her shadow cast over it the slab was made of the same substance both Nothing's throne and Victor's armor were. Her mind failed her when she tried to make sense of this and she abruptly realized that the odd cuts into the slab weren't so mysterious now. She didn't know how the Dark Man managed to manipulate solid rock into both a highly ornamental throne as well as a suit of armor but that color was too one of a kind to be anything else.

She didn't know what she was going to tell Victor...or even what exactly she could tell him. All she knew was that it was a piece of a rock buried near an old well but something told her it wasn't as innocent as that. Wanting to move on there was only the well left and the pilgrim hesitated before steeling herself and going to it. Keeping herself ready for anything she moved up to it with her hands up. The air seemed thicker as she went closer but the well itself looked quite harmless. Cobbled together with somewhat uniform rocks and an antiquated form of concrete the wooden framework to draw water from it had long since fallen away. Falling apart at the sides it looked like a strong kick could knock the whole thing down.

Reaching out with her earthen covered fingers she prodded the lip of well only to find it surprisingly strong. Looking around her she saw nothing but the tall trees and the mist clinging to them just the way it had been the entire time. Risking a peek over the side she could see some thirty feet down where a still pool of water showed a basic reflection of light and shape. It was only slightly visible thanks to the feeble light of the gray sky but there was definitely a body of water down there.

She was trying to figure out how she was supposed to extract a book from this location when someone, something applied pressure to the bottom of her legs and flipped her headlong into the opening. Screaming and scrambling at the sides of the well to somehow push herself back up her momentum was irreversibly headed forward. Falling straight down she only had a traumatic second and a half to cry out before she hit the water. If filled her open mouth and Julia choked even as she flailed to right herself. Gulping a cold rush of water she kicked back to the surface and burst free.

Treading water and sputtering she coughed up way too much liquid as she looked up at the weak beam of light coming from above. The tunnel for the well had been made to a natural sinkhole which opened to the wide cavern she now was trapped. It was at least twenty feet to the roof of the cavern and another ten of the well's walls to freedom. There was no way she could get that high up with tools, a grappling hook, a James Bond flying backpack. Worse she could not even see what had attacked her and there was nothing but a gray circle looking down on her.

"Fuck! Fucking fuck! Fuck you! Fuck you!" she thrashed in the water as she cursed up at whatever had done this to her. "Goddammit..."

Looking around she got a basic idea of her new and possibly permanent location. Roughly domed with stalactites hanging from the beige, ovalish ceiling the chamber was almost completely filled with the deep pool. Below her in the crystal clear water were jagged, white rock and Julia was thankful that the pool wasn't so shallow that she was dashed to pieces by her fall. The back end of the cave was rocky and had rows of stalagmites popping up but was at least dry. Kicking in that direction she swam towards solid ground.

Directly behind her was what appeared to be a rotten, makeshift dock that had mostly disintegrated. Hope surged through her and Julia splashed towards the only sign of humanity down here. Pulling herself onto a rocky shelf out of the cold water she climbed onto flat, sand colored outcropping and sat in an inch of water to scrutinize what was left of the dock. It was no more than five feet long and everything that had been in the water was almost completely gone by now. Still, someone had to have put this here for a reason and certainly had to have found their way out afterward.

A white rock snagged her attention that had wedged itself under some of the dock that was so fragile it was little more than pulp. Too long and straight to be normal it resembled one of the jagged ones under the water's surface. Reaching into the cold water she dragged it out from its resting spot. Heavily calcified likely from the mineral rich ground water it was curiously familiar. Holding it up to the faint light she gasped and dropped it back into the water when she realized what it was.

She had been holding a human bone.

"Holy shit!" she blurted as she scrambled away from the water as if it were contaminated. Julia had assumed the mass of white rocks absolutely covering the bottom of the pool were just a formation oddity. With water dripping from her hanging chin she looked down at the bones and now could clearly make out skulls, rib cages, femurs under the gentle rocking surface. The remains of dozens, perhaps hundreds of people had been deposited here and their skeletons were an unspoken testament to either a long forgotten burial site, a horrid atrocity or both.

"By the gods..." she said aloud. At least now she knew why the area gave her such an ominous vibe. The gut feeling she had about this place was right on she should have listened to her instincts. Even if her life didn't depend on it Julia now had that much more incentive not to join the dead here. Working from the back wall she looked for anything she could use, any weakness in the cave's structure. Zeroing in on a shallow opening at the back wall directly across from the dock she picked her way over to it on the moist rocks. Getting down on her hands and knees she squinted into the opening to see how far it went.

Slightly heartening and dissuading at the same time she could not see the end of the flat tunnel. It would barely be large enough for her to crawl into and while Julia was no claustrophobe it would be nerve wracking for anyone to go head first into a narrow, unknown opening.

Patting herself down she felt her pocket light still clinging intrepidly to her pocket. Pulling out the water logged machine that had crossed dimensional barriers, gone up gravity elevators and was plunged into goo she held her breath as she clicked it on. The heroic light source sprang to life and breathing out a relieved sigh she kissed the little metal rectangle. Thrusting it into the tunnel she saw now that it went quite far before sloping upward out of sight. Not exactly a cozy elevator ride to the surface it was better than being here when night fell.

Firmly gripping her light and wishing she had a better plan Julia lowered herself to her belly and started crawling into the tunnel. It was surprisingly dry but unsurprisingly cramped and her arms scraped against the rough walls as she worked her way forward. It was slow going but luckily she had no other plans that day and eventually she felt the gradual shift in slope. It was a meager improvement but at least she was heading in the right direction, up.

Ahead she could hear the sound of dripping as the tunnel became more narrow. She could see an widening of the tunnel up ahead when it began to level out but the space was growing so tight she had to abandon the favorable crawling position and turn her head to the side to continue. Forcing herself along as the rough path tore at her ears and scalp her hands broke through to the opening and gave her hope. Blind from the lack of light she felt her way forward and squeezed her head through into a small chamber barely three feet wide but with a high ceiling. Tugging her hips through she took a break and held up the light to the chamber.

Here the tunnel ended and Julia's heart sank. Dirty, wet and bleeding from numerous cuts and abrasions she was no closer to escape and in fact was farther now. Rubbing her forehead with a filthy hand she looked up and the amateur cave diver found that the cave continued above her. To her complete surprise when she held up her light she saw a rope descending from the darkness above just out of reach. Hastily standing she clipped her light to the front of her pocket and jumped up to get the end of the rope. It was slightly difficult to get her grip with the gloves on but she yanked down anyway to make sure the rope wasn't going to give on her. It remained solid and Julia's hopes for getting out of the well alive soared.

As she hauled herself up the rope and gently swayed in the air she thought about the evidence of habitation and what exactly had occurred here. Someone had been to this well often enough to warrant lowering construction material down and do minor construction. It was not immediately apparent to her who was responsible for everything she had seen and what the Fater's role in it was. Was the operation topside started to exhume the remains here? Did an archeologist set all of this up himself to find answers?

Too many questions. Blocking the thoughts out for the time being she concentrated on shimmying up the rope hopefully to freedom or at least a better situation. It was relaxing in a way to shut her mind off and just climb. Perhaps it was everything weighing down on her that she able to let go of for just a little while that made her feel better.

The tunnel went up quite a way but Julia was a strong climber and before her muscles started to go tire the rock around her gave way to concrete. Stunned she kept going and the hole broke into a darkened room which she slowly lowered herself into. Stepping off the rope she put one foot on the floor of the bunker she found herself in and shifted her weight onto it. Looking up she saw that the rope was chained to the roof of the room with a sturdy set of bolts and locks. It dropped into the dark tunnel she had just come out of exactly like a fireman's pole and she did not doubt that someone came here regularly.

Julia could hardly believe what she was looking at. Here, in this most improbable of places, was a home. Rugs covered the cold floor and and dusty furniture cast long shadows as she swept her light around. To her right a large switch and towel rack waited for her and she could hardly believe what she was seeing. For fun she flipped the switch and to her surprise double rows of lights flickered on overhead to halfway blind the cave dweller. Tucking her trusty flashlight back in her pocket Julia was struck by the perfectly spaced rows of bulbs that ran the length of the some thirty foot bunker. She'd seen that kind of uniformity before: the immaculately spaced oil lamps in the heart of Nowhere. It could have just been a coincidence but she didn't believe in coincidence anymore.

In the center of the room was a large drawing desk cluttered with half finished runes and dozens of pages of furiously scribbled cursive. A bed, a old cooler and a large ham radio were set against the right side of the room. On the left was a fireplace, stacks of wood, a comfy looking lounge chair and two large bookshelves packed with decrepit books. Set up on a giant cork board by the desk were dozens of notes, papers and tacks holding them in place to form a paper wall. Directly in front of her at the other end of the bunker was a heavy set of double doors that almost made her cry with joy.

Taking the dusty towel Julia wiped herself down while looking at the chaos on the desk. Large like a painter or graphic artist's desk only level it was a total mess. Dozens of papers, notebooks and tattered newspapers were piled on top of each other so thickly that she couldn't even see the actual top of the desk. The pilgrim recognized an issue of the Tri-State Tribune, the same publication to print the story on her parent's murder at her brother's hands. Goosebumps rippled down her arm as she sifted through what had to be Nothing's work.

His handwriting was overly slanted cursive and almost unintelligible for the most part. Recalling the beautiful notes he had left for them around town they barely resembled each other but the style was clearly the same. There was a machine like perfection to what they had found as opposed the samples here which were very much written by a human.

Scattered among the writing were cargo manifests, shipping route details and contracts dated from around March 1985 right up to September 10th. Interesting but unhelpful she picked up a half finished, quite complicated rune with its crazy symbols and perfectly straight lines. She had set it down and moved away from the desk when it occurred to her that she'd just glossed over something important. Going back to the rune she studied the obsessively linear and sharp lines exactly like Victor's. Nothing's version, which she remembered clearly from the blue runes glowing on the floor of Tower as well as any other time he used them, were always curving and graceful. At one point they had been identical to Victor's. This too was significant but she could not yet fathom why.

Wrapping the towel around her shoulders and shivering slightly she inspected the books on the shelves. Not all of them had titles but the ones that did indicated the Dark Man's light reading material. _Paradise Lost_, _Witchekraft_, the _Necrinomicon_ and books entirely in Latin like _De Umbrarum Regni Novem Portis_, _Malleus Maleficarium_ and ___Delomelanicon_ filled the shelves_._ Many had pentagrams and demonic imagery on them crammed together with Aztec, Native American and Mayan mythology. Dictionaries for Greek, Latin and Coptic were in between occult books of every stripe and Julia had no idea what to make of this. Clearly someone had spent a lot of time getting to know the guy downstairs but to what end? Didn't Silent Hill's resident cult have a monopoly on this kind of thing?

She was ready to leave this place and almost did before remembering the reason she was here. Thumbing through the shelf she did not find anything that wasn't a printed book or resembled a journal. Searching the stacks of junk on the desk, the bed, the cooler she turned the already sparse room upside down. Frustrated she plopped herself down in the comfy chair by the fire place and took a well earned break.

Closing her eyes Julia settled in and didn't realize how tired she was. When was the last time she just sat down for a second? Almost irresistibly she nodded off and was only woken by the slight sound of a light blowing wind. Yawning and stretching happily she blinked for a couple seconds as the sound continued. Honing in on it she got up and was led to the fireplace. Pushing aide the fire grate where piles of ancient black ash sat she definitely heard the sound get louder. Putting her ear under the flue she found the source of the sound. The smoke chamber led out of the bunker to the surface where air was either rushing out or in.

Leaning back Julia noticed something breaking up the random piles of ash. Gentling sifting through the long dead cinders she unearthed a single black and white composition book. Shaking it off it was in almost perfect condition somehow. Opening it with soot covered fingers she found what she was looking for. An unmarked, unnamed journal started at April 7 with no year or indication of whose it was. Flipping through it she recognized Nothing's human handwriting and noticed that entire paragraphs and sections had been scribbled over. Clearly someone had gone through it and erased all of the sensitive information but then had been left alone?

It was time to go and she couldn't be more ready. Stuffing the book in her still soaked shirt she inspected the double doors at the end of the bunker. Built at an angle like basement doors they appeared to open inwards. The locking bolts in place were heavy and numerous but she managed to pry them all open. Putting both hands on one of the doors she cranked down and yelped as the door caved in with in avalanche of soil. Julia sprang back and coughed from the sudden explosion of dust as she waved her hands in the air to attempt to dissipate some of it.

Light was coming in from over the dirt pile and she happily clawed her way out of the bunker to sweet misty air. It had never tasted so good and she looked back at the bunker to find it completely buried and otherwise undetectable except for the door. Grass and plants had long since reclaimed the top of it and without knowing where it was it would have just been another hill in the woods. Her problem now was that she had no idea where she was even though she at least wouldn't be starving to death at the bottom of a well.

She knew the direction she generally came from down under the ground but couldn't be 100% sure. Guesstimating that her path would be just to the left of the bunker she hoped to come across the well's clearing again to find her bearings. The pilrgrim started walking but it was impossible to gauge her progress and nothing looked particularly familiar as she went. Julia might as well been leading herself in circles for all she knew at this point.

After walking for some twenty minutes she was getting concerned. Threading her way past a few hardy shrubs she stopped dead in her tracks. At the edge of the mist ahead was a large blank spot the size of a boulder. A perfectly white blotch in the middle of very lively and varied shades of green and brown it had no depth or edges to it no matter what direction she looked at it from. Not in any mood to find out what would happen if she came into contact with the object she backed away before jogging the opposite direction. The pilgrim had no idea if this was the right way either but it had to be better than going near an unraveling of reality.

Trudging warily through the underbrush Julia was coming to the conclusion that she was both hopelessly lost and never coming out of these woods. She could have been twenty feet from the familiar pavement of town and not know it in this mist and bramble. There was no telling-

A crow cawing from just up ahead cut through her thoughts. "Oh, thank the gods." she said in relief. Heading the direction the call came from she moved with purpose now. Her avian adviser was never in sight but she could hear it flapping and it called again from further away. It was slow goings but her guide kept squawking to her and eventually she made it back to the welcome streets of Silent Hill. She was where she started at the edge of town and not a moment too soon as it was beginning to approach dusk.

Now would be a good time to check out the house in front of her that she wanted to take a peek at going by. Above her the crow cawed again before flapping furiously to descend onto the pavement nearby. Looking up at her with glossy black eyes it hopped closer as she smiled at the feisty creature.

"Looks like I owe you one again." she smiled. "Come on up here."

Offering her left arm like a falconer the bird jumped into the air and beat down to settle onto her forearm. "That's good." she smiled again and started scratching it on the head. "Run along now."

Lifting her arm up the bird jumped off and flew up silently into the mist. Chuckling to herself Julia finally headed into the house. Sparsely decorated and ill kept it was still a nice place if a little unimaginatively furnished. Heading upstairs she went down the hall to the master bedroom. It felt like forever since she'd truly relaxed and she felt completely at ease here. Pulling off her grimy gloves and setting them down on the small table by the door she put the journal down as well. Stripping to her underwear and dropping her bra on top of the clothes pile she crawled onto the unmade bed to get under the black sheets.

The pilgrim was asleep in minutes and when she woke much later it was dark out. Yawning and swinging her feet out onto the carpeted floor Julia fumbled in the dark for the lamp at the night stand. Hungry and still a little tired she wondered where she could get a meal at this time of night in this place. It was a shame she couldn't just call in a large pizza to eat by herself and pass out in a grease coma.

Glancing over at her pile of clothes she remembered the journal. Considering everything she went through to get it she was surprised she went to sleep before reading it. Hopping out of bed she took the notebook and tucked herself back into bed. Stacking the pillows behind her to form a comfortable reading position she cracked open the old book and began to read.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29: The Gospel of Daniel

**Apr 7 **– Finally I'm moved in. With this house and inheritance it will be years before I have to worry about working. Always wanted to keep a journal, just seemed like a good time now that I'm starting anew. Who knows, it might even be a good read in its own right.

**Apr 13 **– Starting to put down some roots. Nice people here but I don't introduce myself much. It's kind of silly to say but it's really quiet here. Peaceful. Maybe selling the place isn't such a good idea after all. It's little wonder people call this a tourist trap.

**Apr 15** – It was sunny.

**Apr 21** – Need to stop spending so much time getting caught up on my reading and focus a little bit. There's work to be done here and I'm finding it hard to concentrate. When I'm inside I just want to relax and when I go outside it's too nice to go asking questions and digging for documents or dealing with realtors. Maybe I'll get more done on rainy days.

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**Apr 23 **– Starting to get to work. Feels good to get back into a rhythm after all that court nonsense. Talked to the local librarian on the phone about public records but she wasn't very helpful. People around here are nice enough on the surface but they don't like strangers with questions. That's okay, just makes me work even harder.

**May 7** – Neglecting you journal. Can't say I've done much to warrant writing about. Been listening to the radio a lot and I'm still convinced that music is steadily going to hell. Gone are the great masters of my youth and they've been replaced by rock n' roll which, frankly, has been at it for the last decade or two and still managed to not impress me. I do like the new single from Grover Washington...though this New Wave junk that's gaining traction threatens to be worse than rock.

Was out driving with the radio and passed by a tourist shop, going to stop by and get a copy of their sensationalist propaganda.

**May 9** – Went into the shop. Picked up a lot of pamphlets and souvenirs. Most of it is garbage but there were a few diamonds in the rough. One of them in particular had a few grisly tales of accidents on Lake Toluca. Hard to believe such a majestic lake has so many bodies on the bottom of it. There's a part about a prison that existed here in the Civil War era that would be an absolute treasure trove.

Talked to some kids about the area and they mentioned a haunted well out in the woods. Will have to check that out sometime.

**May 12** – This town is beginning to interest me from a historical perspective. I've been going through the microfilm in the library's newspaper archives going back the last forty years. I got side tracked by some zoology books but it's happening just like I thought it would. I'm getting caught up in my research and pretty soon I'm going to be here when the place opens and leave with the kindly librarian at night.

**May 16** – Four days of combing through old papers has made my eyes more bleary than playing Pac Man for five straight hours. Turned up some interesting stuff. Going to work out a schedule so I'm not here too often.

**May 30 **– Lost this journal for a bit. Found it under some library books – didn't I say this was going to happen? Lots of stuff to report, where to start? I've noticed a few patterns going through Silent Hill's history. Every once in a while something terrible happens that's totally against small town behavior. Rash of suicides in the early 60s. Drug busts. Three upstanding citizens using their fancy houses as operations centers. Nothing interesting happens for five years, then just before I got here, bam, double homicide over on Saul. Parents stabbed to death, two children missing. I could go one but clearly this town is used to horrible things.

Another thing interests me. There's a few graveyards around town but no one seems to be buried there recently. I've checked with the city and this Rob guy told me the plots are owned by the county and are not for sale. People are only buried here when they either had a family plot or when the city had nowhere else to put them and even then it's crowded. Odd since according to Rob it's kind of a local superstition not to be buried near the water. Kooky. Clearly there is more than meets the eye going on.

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**Jun 5** – The town is beautiful this time of year. Sorry, I'm just a little distracted. Called Rob again to ask for a list of all the folks buried here and he flat out refused. Isn't that kind of thing supposed to be available to the public? Why am I getting the run around?

**Jun 6** – Rob won't budge. None of the surrounding counties seem to have any info either. What am I supposed to do? The deceased form an effective and useful tool to analyze the town's past. I might have to start hanging out in cemeteries with a notepad, it isn't illegal to visit graves is it?

**Jun 7** – It's not illegal to look at graves but apparently it's not a good idea to walk around in one when there's a crazy grave keeper on duty. Skinny guy with a power mullet and missing a few teeth, likes to wave a shovel around.

Talked my way out of it and got him to calm down eventually. It was apparent during our conversation that he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and considerably lonely. It was easy to tell, both a writer and a grave keeper have intrinsically lonely professions. I offered to take him to dinner sometime if he left me the hell alone and he happily introduced himself as Tom Bulger. I knew I was going to regret this but Tom said I could do whatever I pleased. He didn't have a list of the graves either so it looks like I'm back to my original plan.

**Jun 8** – Dinner with Tom. I'll never be able to eat linguine again.

**Jun 15** – Finished up my catalog of graves. Some of them date back to the 1700s and are too faded to read but I managed to get most of them. I hope xxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx

**Jun 16** – Found a couple of things out going over my lists. A lot of the area was owned at some point by the powerful Stone and Archibolt families. They seem to be intertwined with the history of the town and I'm sure I'll have to deal with them sooner or later.

I've only been here a couple months but I have a good feeling. If there's a place to put my skills to use it's here. Good night for now, journal.

**Jun 20** – Found a placed called the Silent Hill Historical Society. Can you say jackpot?

**Jun 21** – Again with the rebuffs. Place is closed down for the moment, some kinda legal dispute. I must get in there. I can tell that it has info I'm not liable to find anywhere else. Going to have to find someone else to talk to other than my new nemesis, city official Rob. Bastard's stonewalled me at every turn. I could probably break in but I'll need a lot of time to sort through everything so that's out. There has to be someone I can deal with.

**Jun 24** – Little good news for once. The guy in charge of keeping the place under lock and key is having some financial issues. He pretty much asked me to bribe him which I didn't even know was still in vogue. I did and he gave me a copy of the key. I can only go in at night when I'm likely to not be seen which is kind of sub optimal but will have to do. I'm also not allowed to take anything out of the building or it's his ass. Can't stop me from taking my own notes though so that hardly matters.

**Jul 3** – Wow. Been a while it seems. Had to force myself to take a break from the Historical Society. The last two days I've been getting head aches from not eating regularly. I've been too busy to care – that building is everything I hoped it would be. Beyond the displays and touristy crap there's boxes and boxes of precious research and papers on the history of Silent Hill. I've run across a fellow historian named Jacob Stahl active in the 30s whose work has been invaluable to me. A lot of his old papers are stored here and I've been pouring over them for a week solid.

This is what I've been able to piece together so far. Early on the town was founded by witch hunters who have irrevocably left their mark but the area's true history goes back much farther. Stahl chanced upon yet another, earlier historian's work on the Native American rituals that went on here. Thankfully he had the presence of mind to copy his source material down to the spelling errors. To most people that doesn't mean much but to those of us looking for historical answers this kind of obsessive reproduction is priceless. I would have loved to meet Stahl but he disappeared sometime in early 1931.

Anyway, the copied report talks about this area being particularly important to the local tribes. The source (whose name Stahl never mentions unfortunately) claims to have found relics from the ground in the woods. He claims the rituals performed here were among the most bloody, secret and paradoxically the most holy. That makes no sense to me but this is not my usual field.

The paper goes on to say the exact ceremonies and rites were recorded long ago in a red book somewhere. One of the saddest things about such a priceless treasure is that it could have been tossed aside or used as kindling by some Neanderthal with no clue of what it was. Only if xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx

Been working too hard. Going for a drive tomorrow.

**Jul 5** – I think there was someone else at the Historical Society last night. I could have sworn that I heard noises coming from outside but there was no one when I checked. I don't want to get busted so I'll stay away for a couple of days.

Good finds anyway. Some facts on the colonial settlers from a couple of different papers as well as an official government commission. Witch burnings were disturbingly common in the area – not like sitting down to watch a ball game every Friday common – but common enough that it kept that citizens in line. The initial colony narrowly avoided failure after a hard winter but an influx of pilgrims boosted the town's numbers and survivability the following year. The area was later touted (likely by merchants and civil leaders) to be a perfect place to live when it stabilized and continued to draw families. It was also easily defended thanks to the natural barriers of the mountains and lake.

**Jul 8** – Some unsettling news. I've traced Stahl's last day on record because he actually wrote it himself. Taken from January 16th, 1931:

"My presence here is unhealthy at best both for myself and the ones who seek it. I am going to attempt to remedy this. I am afraid. I must not fail. Should a wiser soul come upon my letter, I beg you, finish what I have begun."

It was a scrap of paper hopelessly lost in his thick files. Whatever he was involved in must have been important. Given that the bulk of his work revolved around the rituals of the area before it was settled I can't imagine what he was afraid of. What did he find that could harm him? Why the note?

I am becoming increasingly uneasy about keeping this journal. I've already incriminated myself on trespassing and bribery charges but now I have this unknown menace that disposed of my predecessor. What if the same thing happens to me? Maybe I'm being silly, this was fifty years ago. Maybe Stahl was being overly dramatic.

On the other hand, it makes me feel better to write about these things. I'll just have to hide this carefully.

**Jul 14 **– Not sure what to say first. I've unearthed some dangerous material here and it's potentially deadly. There's a group at work here that are mixed up in a number of nefarious plots. To have evidence of such things or to even suspect them is volatile in itself.

First, from local sources as well as police reports from decades ago there appears to be an underground drug trafficking ring either based out of Silent Hill or very close by. Second, the Stone and Archibolt names keep popping up. Third and most disturbing in my mind all of this is somehow related to Jacob Stahl's disappearance and his occult investigations. Without the training to see the patterns one can miss the signs but I see recurring themes stretching back more than a hundred years.

It breaks down like this: nearly all of the arrests on drug charges, related crimes and extortion are either associates or family members of the two local clans or the events took place in buildings owned by them. See, they're careful like that, not to have their names on deeds or to be fingered during questioning.

Now these families are among the oldest still living in Silent Hill. Their genealogy can be traced back hundreds of years if one looks. This was one of the main reasons Stahl was interested in them in the first place. He wanted diaries, family heirlooms, stories and family legends. His research painted them as the keepers of Silent Hill lore. This wasn't his true goal though, oh no. He wanted those ceremonies, the rituals from bygone days and was hoping he could get them from either the Stones or the Archibolts. That plan seemed to backfire, didn't it Jake? Drug smugglers don't take kindly to their past being investigated.

There is one thing I am curious about. Stahl mentions a young lady that had recently married out of the family in his time. He gloated about buying a dusty old book from her that turned out to be a family tree. I don't know where he hid the damn thing but he said with it he could find who last had "it". No description, no idea of what it was, just "it". I think that's what got him killed.

Feels good to have this written down, in case something happens to me. I certainly didn't expect any of this but I have to know how far down the rabbit hole goes.

**Jul 16** – Was definitely not alone at the Historical Society last night. I can't rely on ambiguity anymore. Getting some protection.

**Jul 18** – I loaded up. Had to drive two counties away to get what I wanted. Picked up a pretty bitchin' taser, a can of pepper spray and a kick ass looking knife set that slings over your chest. I don't know whose been shadowing me or why but a feel a lot safer with this stuff. I looked at a lot of guns too but I've never used one and I'm nervous about showing anyone around here my ID. Criminals get them without all the red tape right? I'm sure I can if I have to. Hope it doesn't come to that. The knife thing is cool but it's some ninja crap I hope no one finds out I can't even use. Probably end up stabbing myself before actually hitting someone with them.

**Jul 20 **– Bit more dirt on the Stones. Looks like they had a lot of property to sell when an epidemic wracked Silent Hill and the town was repurposed as a penal colony. They also appear to have helped finance the Brookhaven hospital way back when. A coincidence that makes me worry.

**Jul 22** – Come across some interesting material here on a woman named Jennifer Carroll. Apparently there's a memorial dedication to her in the park that I'll have to check out. Doesn't say why it was raised but we'll see what I can dig up.

**Jul 23** – No help from the memorial but there are some interesting dates and times to note. The park was built in 1845 and according to Stahl the Carroll woman was burned at the stake in 1692. Someone kept her memory and that event alive for a hundred and fifty years at least.

**Jul 25 **– Jennifer Carroll was a woman tried and executed for being a witch but exonerated tragically, posthumously. The case is unusual for a couple of reasons. The local priest at the time was a man named Arthur Archibolt (no coincidence there) and being burned alive was becoming something of an uncommon practice as the years went on. Carroll's death was the same year as the infamous Salem witch trials but the method died out rather quickly in the next century. I would say bad luck on Carroll's part but with a Archibolt lurking in the background I'm not so sure it was just misfortune.

I'm close to finding the truth here. It's not going to be lost this time. Not again. The secrets of this town are well buried but the past is an open book to a careful historian.

**Jul 27** – Almost done in the Society and it's a good thing. All the relevant data I've copied down or simply taken, consequences be damned. I'll need to keep a low profile from here on out – no more fraternizing with the locals. I'll get groceries and other things over in Brahams and only travel at night.

**Jul 28** – I'm such a dupe! I had forgotten completely about my own notes, a cardinal sin in my profession. Jacob Stahl is buried in town, what luck! It was before the county owned the property and they're bound by law not to disturb the people already interred. His grave is in a secluded spot and I know with far too much certainty that the grave keeper goes home at 8. I'll have to get some supplies but I need to exhume Stahl. How he died, any information I can glean about his family or where he lived would be invaluable to avoiding his fate.

**Jul 30** – Better than I could have ever hoped for.

I'll start from the dig up. It went well and I finished in a few hours. I was honestly prepared with gloves, a suit, all kinds of gear for a late night, impromtu autopsy. Turns out ol' Jake was a craftier son of a bitch than I thought. His coffin, made of stone and not wood, contained no body but a trove of books carefully wrapped in waterproof tarps. It took me several minutes of tricky positioning to ease them out of their fifty year slumber but I was excited beyond words.

Thanks to Tom Bulger I knew exactly how to cover up the entire incident. I cut out the sod on top and carefully piled the sediment layers for when I replaced them. A ghastly man but his ramblings ironically turned out to be useful in helping fool him. Someone who looks closely will see evidence of tampering but only for a week or so until the soil rights itself.

Turning my basement into a repository for my finds. I haven't cracked them open yet but getting everything cataloged and ordered shouldn't take long.

**Aug 5** – The pages are remarkably well preserved and it's a good thing Stahl had the foresight to use the materials he did. What he left for me is simply out of this world. While the Society had his notes, general reports and investigations this was the priceless meat of his true work: the rituals he sought after and likely died for were all painstakingly recorded in these tomes. If that wasn't shock enough he had also dabbled in other types of occult and arcana research. The greatest revelation so far was his admission that his unnamed source was in fact none other than Jennifer Carroll.

Things are clicking into place. Both were almost pathologically interested in the Pre-Columbian rituals only Carroll was in a much better historical vantage point to get them without the toxic effect of time. Both undoubtedly ran into the powerful families that have dominated the town since it's inception. Both presumably met their ends uncovering unsavory truths.

Of course there's a few insights one can gather from this. I'm going to be in the same position they were if I continue. Stahl obviously knew his time was running out and I strongly suspect that Carroll did too. I'm in too deep now though to accede to my own cowardice. There are times in your life when what's right is more important than your own safety.

**Aug 21** – These books are no joke. A lot of it is blood magic, evil sorcerer kind of stuff but just as much is concerned with good harvests, rain and other manipulation of the physical world. Stahl, astoundingly, considered all of this legitimate. There's a number of minor hexes to harass enemies and others to make someone more receptive to your amorous advances. Funny thing is the nature of these exchanges are often quid pro quo. Example: "This particular incantation requires a blood sacrifice of several large animals (like a bear or deer) or preferably human children. This ensures the destruction of your enemy's harvest."

Stahl's callous attitude towards human sacrifice aside, the entire thing is absurd. Imagine killing a child just to cross your fingers that someone's corn will die off? This is the realm of "psychic" tarot card readers and crystal ball fortune tellers. I know it was 1931 but come on. In all of his work Stahl comes off as an expert researcher and bright man. I find it hard to believe the same person who wrote the treatises I found in the Society the loon brusquely explaining how to make clay figurines of your foes. Did he really die for this nonsense?

**Sept 3** – I'm getting deeper into this than I ever expected. From a historical viewpoint these tomes constitute a rare archive of magic rituals that any university would drool over. The part I cannot reconcile is Stahl's complete and utter conviction that any of this will work. This is the domain of fools and religious nutjobs who think that somehow their "magic" is any less made up than the myths of the major world religions.

**Sept 4** – A large section of Stahl's main grimoire (by Jove I feel silly even writing that) is dedicated to one time, temporary spells he refers to as 'wards'. According to him they are mystic symbols and words put on paper combined with chants that produce real life effects. Gone are the quid pro quo offerings of the other rituals but Stahl theorized that "the user's own life force and fervent belief is what pays for the ward".

Heavy material and a bit esoteric but his research prowess makes it easy to understand. He records the exact images, symbols and words needed to deploy the wards. Interestingly once fully mastered one no longer needs to speak the words if they can be thought of instead. While some of the imagery is unmistakably European much of the symbols and nearly all of the words are Native American. On paper they are unintelligible strings of letters but here Stahl has inserted phonetic lines for exact pronunciation. The man might have been a little crazy but he was an unparalleled mind.

**Sept 5** – It occurred to me last night that I may have been on the wrong track. All this time I have assumed that Jacob Stahl was a fellow historian merely interested in local superstition. While that is entirely possible I am wondering if this is not the whole truth. What if he was primarily interested in the rituals of the area not from a research point of view but from one of power? Could he have been – I can't believe I'm writing this – an aspiring magician or medicine man trying to awaken the spirits of old?

Whatever the case he at least had the foresight to bury his most important work before his aggressors buried him. I'm convinced the Stone and Archibolt families had something to do with it. Could their witch hunting ways have survived all this time into the 20th century?

Something else is off. Stahl cites Carroll as his primary source of both history and grimoire magic. Where is this original book or books? All of the tomes in the coffin were written by Stahl – I know his handwriting too well by this point. I postulate that the family heirloom the young acquaintance sold to him had something to do with this. Possibly the "it" he spoke of or something more valuable than the spells he so badly wanted?

**Sept 7** – All right, maybe I've been cooped up in this basement too long but I have to know. I going to try some of Stahl's wards. I have no idea how to make the custom ones that in theory provide limitless applications but he left an extensive list of starter wards and their effects. I've chosen one I can practice without being disturbed and the effects will be simple to confirm or not. It's a simple ward to light something on fire. All I have to do is copy the ward down perfectly and speak the words. It should then ignite whatever I aim the ward at. I know, I know. This is patently insane. I'll try it anyway just for Jake's memory.

**Sept 9 **– Two days of wasting reams of paper has gotten me nowhere. I need a lot of practice but I'm sure I made at least two perfect copies that did, predictably, squat. I admit sitting in my basement chanting words at a paper on top of a stack of magazines is plain strange if not downright mad.

It's my birthday soon. Maybe I'll take some time off and just plan for dropping all this garbage off at a museum somewhere.

**Sept 17** – Found a problem with my experiments. After reviewing Stahl's instructions I came across a short excerpt I must have missed or glossed over earlier. He mentions that no ordinary paper will work but a specially processed kind that had to be, and he was adamant about this, made in the fall. In addition it had to be hand made, special symbols carved into the trunk before felling the free and the entire process punctuated by prayer. He also specifies that the trees have, have, have to be local. No foreign lumber will do, the closer to Lake Toluca the better.

Won't be too hard to sneak into the woods to find a tree to saw down but the paper making thing is going to be a pain. Not only will I need special equipment but Stahl mentions that no one should know about the operation. Don't know why this is a factor but I'll not question keeping my head down. I'll order the equipment from the outside and bring it in myself.

**Sept 30** – While waiting for my equipment I've been practicing wards. I've even managed to memorize some of the simpler ones that also accordingly have the most minimal effects.

Physically I feel better with all this spare time to eat and sleep but my head aches have persisted. I've probably lost ten pounds or so but I'm less concerned about my health than I should be I guess.

**Oct 1** – Stuff's here. Getting it set up today, making paper tomorrow.

**Oct 3** – What a pain. Had no idea this was such a process.

**Oct 4 **– Impossible. Impossible. It works. Gods high above on the mountain top and below under the earth, it works. I can't even...I can't even tell you. This changes everything, not just for me but for everyone, ever. Where do I even start...

Coming back to write later. I'll just put down what happened I'm so jittery. I wrote the ward on the thrice blessed paper exactly the way I should have. Sitting back I read the words and cast the paper at a stack of sacrificial magazines. The paper hit them and disintegrated into a fire that lit the magazines ablaze like I'd doused them in gasoline and threw a match on it. I wasted two precious sheets due to my shaking hands as I tried to repeat the experiment. I did it three times to be sure.

I hope that I've truly gone insane down here and am only imagining the results. I'll keep making paper while it's still in season but I have to test their effects on other people outside the house to make sure I haven't completely lost it. If I'm not a psychotic lunatic then there's a few problems going on.

First, the metaphysical is real. This confirms a ten billion theories and looney ramblings since the dawn of time. Everything we think is meaningless in the face of actual magic that works, and works well.

Second, if this simple ward works then there are many more that work as well. This is a much more frightening implication given that some of Stahl's rituals can be used to bring "great evil" into the world. He believed the most powerful could augment one's lifespan or in the most forbidden of magics, bring the dead back to life.

Lastly, I cannot be the only practitioner on the planet. Carroll was one and Stahl an authority as well. How many others have their been? How many today, right now? I see now the importance of secrecy in paper making. Someone who watching for the signs would have known exactly what I was doing. I suspect the ruling families and their proclivity for witch burnings drove our kind underground or stamped them out completely.

It's a good time to get myself a gun.

**Oct 6** – Making paper at a fever pitch. I have around the rest of the month so I'm going to have to cut down another tree to have enough to play with. The papers have to be perfectly straight and intact until casting so storage is also going to be a consideration.

**Oct 7** – The wards work outside the house. I blew out a motorist's tire at a stop light, smashed a store front window and flipped over a table in front of people who responded normally to the situations (even if they had no idea what was going on). Then I worked with an invisibility ward (it's really an attention diverting ward) that I used to hide a dollar bill in plain sight. Worked my way up to a hundred dollar bill posted right above a crosswalk button that at least twenty people looked right at. Amazing.

**Oct 8** – Gone through almost every ward Stahl recorded and barring a few that are exceptionally more complex than the others I can do them all with time and practice. One in particular intrigues me. It is the work of a master for sure (erasing all doubts of Stahl's competence). It is meant for something extremely specific, hence all the extra work put into it. I can tell it's for finding this mystery object but cannot yet decipher more than that. It's going to take me a couple of days to reproduce it.

**Oct 10 **– Nailed it. The ward does indeed show me where to go – led me all across town to a mansion. Not just any mansion but one owned by the Stone family. This worries me greatly. The ward was made presumably before Stahl's disappearance in 1931. Whatever he was tracking was at least that old and still existed in the family's possession.

I don't mind admitting that I am scared. Going in there would be like heading into the belly of the beast. If this is the "it" my late mentor spoke of then I expect it is something monumental.

If something happens to me then consider this journal my last will and testament. You, dear reader, are heir to all of the knowledge gained by myself and my predecessors. I will copy the wards from Stahl's books and rebury his work. I'll hide this journal in the house and cover my tracks but place a tracking ward in the grave with the other materials so you might find it.

Wish me luck.

**Oct 14** – The Stones are having a house party and some insipid banquet in a couple of days. I will strike then. My wards will be ready. I walked into the bank today and went behind the counter to steal a pen from the back office to make sure the invisibility ward worked.

**Oct 16** – I don't know where to start. I'll try to sum up. Dammit old man, just write it already. I found "it". I also killed a man to get it.

I'm a ball of nerves, a wreck. I've vomited twice. I can't do this. I'll have to write later.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

All right. I've calmed down. I think.

The Stones invited half the town to their damn party. With an attention deflecting ward I strolled in and headed deeper into the mansion away from everyone, led by Stahl's ward.

I entered the large basement where they stored old furniture and antiques crammed together like a warehouse. Going past a well stocked wine cellar I was led to a trap door and went down a ladder into pure darkness. It smelled like mold and at the bottom and I couldn't see a thing. Feeling my way around I found a large wooden door I opened without hesitation.

Things happened all at once that I did not expect. Passing through the threshold of the door I heard and felt my ward crumble to pieces. Inside I found an antechamber that was a sort of reliquary for many old items and past it was what looked like a drug lab. Unfortunately for me it was not unguarded. There was a man there as surprised to see me as I was him. He saw the taser in my hand and went for something but I jumped at him and got him the in neck. Searching him I found the gun he was going for and almost threw up right then.

I didn't know what to do. He had seen my face and although infrequent I wasn't unknown in the state. The taser didn't knock him out and I kept shocking him but I was panicking. Grabbing an old carpet I laid it across the back of his head and put the barrel to it. I shot. The sound didn't make too much noise. I threw up on his body.

The antechamber wasn't big but loaded with vases, paintings, expensive and old stuff that was probably worth money. Looking around me I found what had destroyed my ward. Across the door's threshold masterful runes had been inscribed – I didn't recognize them but their purpose was painfully apparent to me. Thanks to them both my ward and Stahl's had been broken, smashed to pieces by the ward breakers.

I was crying and sick to my stomach but I had to move. Ransacking the room I found a small bookshelf hidden underneath an old dresser. Flipping the books open and expecting someone to walk in any minute I had to check everything that was there. The first four were garbage, meaningless tomes but skimming through the last I saw wards and knew that this was what I was looking for. I hadn't the time to make another attention ward to get out safely nor the ability to concentrate – I was losing it. I hurried out of that terrible place with the book in my shirt and for sure people saw me leave.

I've already destroyed everything I was wearing. Spent an hour and a half in the shower staring at the wall. I can't eat, can't sleep. The diary is in the basement. I don't want to even touch it. I'm considering getting in my car and never coming back to Silent Hill ever again. I'm too scared to even leave the house. Any moment now I'm waiting for the police come knocking. I know I should run but I can't work up the courage to walk outside. What have I done?

**Oct 19** – It's been three days. I ventured out early in the morning to get the papers from the last few days. Came home and read them cover to cover. No mention of a murder, no missing persons investigations, nothing. It was like it never happened. I can't believe it. They covered it up themselves. They are a dangerous clan.

Still haven't touched the book. I'm half convinced that it contains nothing but cooking recipes.

**Oct 21** – Finally mustered the courage to read it. Turns out to have been a diary and at the same time exactly what I thought it was. Something worth killing over. Which I have done. I have killed someone. That's right, write it down a few more times. This never ceases to escape me. It haunts me at night. I see his pained eyes before I pull the trigger. It's horrible.

Enough. I must continue.

The diary is fairly innocent at first (like mine). A number of pages go by before I realize how old it is. The language is antiquated, proper, the pages ancient, almost falling apart in my fingers. Then the person writing names herself, Jennifer. It all comes to me. This is Jennifer Carroll's personal diary...and she last wrote in it close to three hundred years ago. I could not fathom how such a precious object had escaped destruction over the long centuries but all would be explained.

Carroll was cursed with high intelligence and insatiable curiosity. She was intensely interested in the Native American rituals before her time and sought to use them to elevate herself. Her desire for forbidden knowledge led her to certain elements of what she later refers to as 'the Order' – a pseudo-Christian-apocalypse sect that was founded in her era. It would appear that the case against her being a witch was well founded. She speaks of her "heretical tutelage" over the course of years when she and the group found each other.

Beginning with her arranged marriage into the Archibolt family to a dim, surly man she despised Carroll narrates with surprising candor her rise in their ranks as an 'adept' of wards and runes. In need of allies and recruits they were happy to take in a someone as proficient as her even though in her words she was "but a lowly house wife". She loathed everything about her new family but could not stop learning from them either. To my surprise the Order members were mostly Stones and Archibolts! I cannot reconcile this discovery. They had not orchestrated Carroll's death because she was a witch – they were as guilty as she was! Incredible.

Allowed into their libraries and archives she did much of the same work Stahl and I have done. During her time she steadily uncovered – and recorded to my shock – a pattern of conspiracies and deceit that started back to the town's founding. Over the years the Stones – who she surmised were the brains of the operation – and Archibolts had used every dirty trick in the book to buy, cajol or otherwise acquire control of much of the town's property. They used legal intimidation, extortion, crooked loans, blackmail and outright murder to achieve their goals. There were a couple of epidemics in the town's history...I wonder who stood to profit from those with their names on deeds all over the city?

This book was a damning narrative; I wondered why it hadn't been destroyed long ago. Carroll herself knew that getting caught with her wards would mean her death at the hands of the rest of the town but it seemed that she also feared the Stones. She stated, not without a measure of pride, that she was the single greatest practitioner among their black flock and I believe her. Still she was treated always a junior member and second class citizen due to being female. Ridiculed for speaking out of turn and made to do menial chores when she could turn any of them into dust she said "as my knowledge grows so too has my wrath". Hating her brothers for her mistreatment and forced servitude she collected evidence against them as her skills surpassed the others but she feared for her life. And, history shows, not without good reason.

To this end she crafted her masterpieces shortly before her death. The first was a charm made from the bones of a crow and a wooden totem based on actual artifacts she unearthed herself. This lone crest was the last word in ward breaking – Carroll claimed that it would not only defeated any already it place but rendered ward attacks on her null and void. The second was a powerful enchantment that – get this – drew power directly from her life force. Its purpose? The indestructibility of this diary. Each day it sapped her vitality and her murderers unwittingly completed the seal by burning her at the stake.

If there was any doubt of the skills of Carroll, one need look no farther than the book in my hands. Though the pages looked frail and brittle you couldn't mar the pages with a hammer. I tried to no effect. I could probably use it as a bullet proof vest.

When the diary ended for a few pages rather abruptly but then picked up at the end. I was amazed to discover Stahl's handwriting at the very end of the book. He updated the progress he'd made on the crimes that carried over to present time in 1931 and probably could be taken to court today. Clever Stahl added his ordinary pages in between the others – one could not denigrate the book any more than one could destroy it, hence adding pages instead of putting notes in. Here I found the tracking rune he had placed in the book and where better to put it than in between indestructible leaves?

I have to spend some time thinking about this. It's a lot to take in.

**Oct 24** – I've spent the last few days reading the diary over and over. I think I've figured out what happened to Carroll. She mentioned being watched and assumed it was a nosy townsperson but I have a different hypothesis. I think the Stones sold her out to the rest of the town. Remember how her original family exonerated her after her death? I think her adopted one killed her off. Maybe they didn't want her ruling over them, maybe they found her diary but I'm convinced the Order was responsible for her death one way or the other.

I've decided that I have to act. Too long the many sins of the people here have gone unpunished. I have grown to greatly admire Jennifer Carroll and her courage as well as her skill as an adept. Stahl as well, my teachers from beyond the grave both likely killed by the ruling faction here. I am certain that they gave their lives so I could follow in their footsteps. Not just anyone, me, right here, right now. Almost three hundred years later, she will have justice.

**Oct 28** - My plan is beginning to form. I shall infiltrate the Stone drug operation and gain enough of their trust to bring them down from the inside. If I can work for them long enough maybe I can also get access to their grimoires though I suspect I'll have to put on my cuckoo hat and pretend to be as into their religion as they are. I can safely say that no one got a good look at me the night I crashed their party. Although it goes against my personal beliefs the best way I can think of is to start buying their drugs and positioning myself as a dealer. I'll have to dip into my inheritance, maybe even clean it out. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Worth it.

**Nov** – Doing some scouting. Taking notes on the comings and going of the families, keeping track of their movements, etc.

**Dec** – I'm turning into a vampire. I only go out at night and carry around with me a number of sheets to defend myself and stay hidden. If I get a desire for blood we're going to have problems. Haven't' really felt like writing much. I have a tendency to reread what I wrote and I don't like reliving that man's death.

Merry Xmas!

**Jan 5** – Have a lot of info on the happenings here. If the Stones don't want to kill me for stealing Carroll's diary then they will for me spying on them.

**Jan 17** – It's occurred to me that I'm going to need a hideout. Not only that but a fake name as well. There's a certain power in knowing someone's true name – this much Stahl was certain of. As he is my mentor I will defer to his wisdom on this matter.

**Jan 25** – Picked out a good spot for my base. The land was cheap and construction starts soon. Now all I need is a druggie alter ego.

**Feb 4** – I'm leaving Silent Hill for a bit. It's good that I'm a shut in by nature – no one really knows me, not even my neighbors. As far as most people know I'm rarely home or leave the house – definitely okay with either assumption.

**Feb 7 **– There's an old, local legend about giant, man eating monsters not unlike the Wendigo of other myths. They were once humans but their hearts turned to ice because of their terrible crimes. They were called "Kewahqu" (keh-wah-kwoo) and it is a fitting metaphor. My ancestry is a bit more south of the border but I can pass for a mixed brown person just about anywhere.

**Feb 20** – Hideout's underway. Can't risk putting it's location here – even though this journal is heavily warded once found it would only take time and effort to break into.

I've thought up a name: Daniel Kewahqu, tribal orphan and lover of trips. Not too far from the truth. The orphan part I mean.

**March 10 **– Not much to report. Construction's coming along nicely.

**Apr 7 **– This journal turns 1! Had I any idea what I was getting myself into a year ago...

**Jun 20 **– Practicing wards and the much more difficult runes as I wait. The runes are the ones that are malleable and can be shaped to fit your needs. Tons more difficult to get right but almost limitless in scope.

**Jul 5** – Not a lot going on. I feel a bit home sick for Silent Hill. Strange isn't it?

**August** – Took a break from wards and runes to make a little back story for Daniel. Not sure exactly how I'm going to pull this off but disabling their operation is going to require some serious acting.

**Sept **– It's done and with a year or two of grass growing the place should be next to impossible to find. I'll have a proper place to flee to should I need it. I actually need to move a lot of my stuff there from the basement – too much incriminating, sensitive information to be found by anyone.

**Nov** – Starting the buys. Made from a local plant they call it PVT – some fancy acronym for the junk. I told them I rarely trip myself but have a dedicated fan base I sell to. Doesn't hurt that they think I'm talking about folks on a rez.

**Dec** – Gaining notice from my contacts.

**Jan 20 **– Things are going smoothly. I'm buying – and flushing – thousands in drug money. The fact that this crap is this popular bothers me. Kids these days...

**Feb 15** – Making progress. Can't rush these things but I've hinted that I wouldn't mind working for them full time.

**Apr 20 **– Big news. Things have gone very, very well. Faster than I'd hoped. They want me to move into the Stone mansion and start working for them full time. This presents a quandary as I have to pretend to still be selling but I have no customers to turn over to my new friends. I tell them that my people won't trust anyone else.

I was introduced to an old man named Saul, Saul Stone to be exact. He was eyeing me funny but I'd never seen him before. Scared me, hadn't been back in the mansion since the incident and I was jumpy.

**Jul 28 **– I understand now what was going on when I first moved here. After months of being a good little pusher they started setting me up for something more. At first it was innocent questions about spirituality and religion. Knowing full well what they were all about I was ambivalent and even added that I believed in spirits. Music to their ears.

I was introduced formally to the Order. Their beliefs, core values and what not. I couldn't believe how forthcoming they were being but in retrospect they had me dead to rights if I freaked out. It was the old man, Saul, who introduced me and showed me around their chapel.

He then asked me about magic and I mentioned medicine men but he only laughed. He then showed me a ward and used it to knock a door down right in front of me! I had to act suitably shocked of course as Daniel Kewahqu would have been by his little demonstration. That's when he told me I had "the touch", the ability to cast wards and use runes. It was something they screened for and was apparently rare. I assumed incorrectly that anyone could use them given the right amount of practice. The wards, I found out with genuine astonishment, did not work outside of Silent Hill either.

This was what they used to keep their business running smoothly. Some of what Saul showed me was I confess too complex even for me. But I'm a patient and attendant student and as eager to learn as they are to teach.

**Jul 30 **– They branded me with a sigil, a sign of the Order to show my dedication. I happily accepted of course, I'd do anything to gain their confidence.

Relieved of my drug trafficking duties (thankfully!) I was put into 'class' with Saul and two other trainees. Their names are Doug and Marcus, both a bit younger than me. One is a little portly and I'm told loves his booze while the other is monstrously withdrawn and a little easy to tick off. We all study under Saul who is the Stone clan's master and by extension the most proficient of the Order as well. The position is known informally as the 'Fater' and was once reserved only for Stone patriarchs. Time and dwindling recruits have relaxed the criteria somewhat as Saul is actually only half Stone and not a particularly high ranking priest. He's approaching sixty-five though and there aren't many of us with the touch around.

It seems to me that there's three kinds of clan members around. The majority of them who either don't know or don't care about the Order and it's dealings, ones privy to the drug running and/or a part of it and Order members fully devoted to their religion and, simultaneously, their profits.

For now I have to be like them and pretend that money matters to me as much as my studies.

**June 6 **– This will be my last journal entry for a bit. Saul is taking personal charge of my day to day activities and I can't afford to have him find this. I will continue my training and bide my time.

**Dec 4** – Woo, long time no see. Training's gone well and I've learned some interesting facts.

First is that long ago a number of the natives gathered together here regularly. The holy power of the area – called the Place of Silent Spirits by them – had been corrupted by the 'coming evil' of the settling pilgrims. The selfish invaders had triggered what could best be translated as "the anger of the land" no doubt by profaning Silent Hill with their settlements and wanton logging. Their spiritual home began to turn hostile and with their numbers falling thanks to the advancing colonists the native leaders made a decision. Taking their most gifted shamans and strongest blood magic they offered themselves to the old gods that this anger not ruin the area for their children. The terrible emanations of the growing power gathering here were sealed away by the natives at a horrific cost circa 1600.

What would happen if the seal is broken? Is this the source of Silent Hill's power? What would the wrath of centuries of colonization be like unleashed? I admit I am fascinated.

There's more. I have learned that in the belief structure of the sometimes pseudo-Christian, sometimes occult Order there is a recurring theme of bringing God into the world. I thought at first this meant spreading their particular brand of crazy but I'm convinced they mean this literally. There is a ritual, easily one of the oldest they have, called the Descent of the Holy Mother and the 21 Sacraments. It is a doomsday prophecy that actually sounds fairly simple to pull off – if you can call the ritual murder of 21 people simple – but the devil's in the details. No one really knows how to do it anymore. Supposedly the full ritual was recorded in a red book somewhere but lost to antiquity. Both Stahl and Carroll confirm this if I remember right but neither had any proof it really existed.

The idea of the Holy Mother, by the way, changes depending on what sect you ascribe to but get this – a majority of the Order believes that Jennifer Carroll was a saint. She's even referred to as the leading candidate for the Holy Mother reborn. I now understand why the Stones kept "it" tucked away all of these years instead of putting it in their chapel with the rest of their 'relics'. Who knows what kind of holy war would erupt if the rest of the Order found out a Stone had a hand in her demise?

I suspect though that the incident is simply so old that appearance has become fact and not even the Stone family knows anymore that they were responsible for her death. Unfortunately for them, I remember. I always remember.

**Dec 10** – Asked Saul about the Descent ritual. He said it was a lost myth taught to children that may have never existed in the first place but welcomed me to search for any information. I think he takes my interest as fervency which I am okay with.

**Dec 11 **– I found a passage in the archives that mentions the items needed for the ritual but not much else. The red book I keep hearing about, a black goblet made of obsidian (good luck finding one of those laying around) and "the whitest of wine". When I asked Saul about it he laughed and said those items either faded into obscurity or never existed in the first place. I dropped it but the old man was lying. He's hiding something, I know it.

**Dec 14** - Searching for the book anyway. Have to be discreet – Saul's old but he's still sharp as a tack.

**Dec 25** – Happy holidays, journal. Won't be able to write much.

**Jul 15** – Boy, haven't seen you in a while. We've got a lot to talk about.

I've been allowed more or less autonomy by the Fater and by proxy the rest of the Order. I've killed another three people. All were necessary but one was regrettably innocent. I should be more bothered by this but given what I've seen and done it doesn't. The first two were drug dealers in the area that weren't our people. I've learned why they've been so generous about training me – I'm to act as the Order's supernatural enforcers whenever hits need to be made here. I'm all too happy to prove my devotion to them, in fact, these hits have greatly solidified my status. I guess using wards to kill people is basically your initiation.

The third person was actually an Archibolt family member. He mentioned when he met me that he thought he recognized me from somewhere, maybe a party. I thought no one had gotten a good look at me the night I reclaimed Jennifer's journal but he had. While he didn't ID me I know that one errant conversation with the wrong person meant my doom. I kidnapped him and left a note about having girlfriend troubles (he was married). I killed him with a syringe of drain fluid and buried him in the woods. I hope he didn't suffer.

**Aug 8** – Saul is becoming suspicious of me, I think. Perhaps he sees through my false adoration for the Order and their goals. Can't have that, one word from him and I'm dead. I'll have to strike first...going to poison him tonight. Potassium chloride, same stuff they use for lethal injections. Saul's getting up there in age – don't think anyone's going to make a fuss over his death.

**Aug 9 **– Saul never woke up last night. Tragic. At least now I can research in peace. No one bothers an adept in these parts, no one who knows what we can do anyway.

**Aug 22** – Unexpected development. I've been promoted to the clan's Fater. It was likely a hurried decision but it was really down to me or Marcus – the Doug kid apparently really has an alcohol problem. My former classmate Marcus, though better qualified and blood related, is a bit too awkward to lead and apparently has been 'disciplined' for skimming a little profit off the top.

I've also been charged with keeping up the tracking runes on the Order member's wrists. That's right, the brand they make you get can be used to locate anyone. Marvelous. I'm in the best possible position to carry out my plans. No one questions a clan's Fater and certainly not the Stones'. They view us almost like lab scientists playing with laser guns – a strange bunch but not the kind you want mad at you.

Ceremony for me tomorrow. Most of the Order is going to show up for it and I expect a few red hooded attendants to christen me with my new title. Great spirits, if they only knew.

**Aug 24** – They moved me into larger and better quarters to commemorate my new role. The girl moving in Saul's personal library actually asked me "where I wanted all this junk". I almost killed her on general principle. Junk? The mysteries of the universe come unraveled in those books. The ignorance of these people.

**Aug 29** – Possibly the most important day of my life.

I found it. And little wonder why it has eluded me all these years – the old man had it all along. Stashed among the "sacred texts" reserved for the Fater alone was the red book, the Crimson Ceremony. Additionally there were books on mastering runes, the hardest but most rewarding of all Silent Hill magic. Not only do I know now how to execute the Descent but what I will need. It now begs the question – if this was meant to bring about the end of the the world then why hasn't the Order managed to pull it off yet? I suspect that earthly domination is and has always been their goal. It would take a true believer – a psychopath really – to do this ritual with no guarantee of what it promises.

**Aug 30 **– There's something here that I am intensely interested in. The Descent, the 21 Sacraments, they are the 21 murders one must do to bring God to Earth. But there's a bit of a catch – okay, a monster of a catch. The 11th murder is called the Assumption, because, well, your task is to murder yourself and assume a new form. Mind you the texts fully expect you to continue the Sacraments _after_ you're dead or "released from the bonds of flesh"! I can only imagine we are talking about immortality here.

This represents a monumental shift in my strategy here. I still want to bring down the Order but...what if I can do it posthumously? All the data relevant now will be relevant later. Surely if I can kill people after I'm dead I can drop off all my notes, reports and evidence at the police station as well?

**Sept 7** – More details. With my position here inviolate I can research whatever I want to my heart's content. I will need the 'black cup', that obsidian chalice I mentioned earlier and the 'whitest of wine' which I still haven't found much information about. I've looked into local wineries but many of them specialize in berry, apple and pear wines i.e. red wines. I suspect that this is not a literal translation as the making of wine is not a native activity. The Ceremony is far older than Europeans on American soil; I doubt they were stomping grapes when conquistadors showed up.

**Sept 20** – Missed my birthday again. Getting less important as I get older.

Listen to this passage: "The beauty of the withering flower and the struggles of the dying man, they are my blessings."

Our cash crop PTV is made from the hallucinogenic seeds of the White Claudia plant though we distribute it in powder form. Every reference made to what I need calls it "wine", "mist", "oil". Getting a hold of White Claudia will be no problem but I'm not fully convinced it's what I'm after.

**Oct 7** – Nailed it. Found a book that noted the hallucinogenic properties of White Claudia (and thus PVT) were "key" in the native rituals from the area. Followed up on the info and landed a meeting with Sandra Kimumu, an expert of local Passamaquoddy history. According to her there existed a powerful smoke that was produced by first making an oil that was then thrown onto a fire to produce a cloud of ultra potent toxin. The shamans would become "entranced" and have visions.

The origin of the oil was supposed to be mythological but I know better. I've found two of the three things I need to finish the Assumption. What then, when I find the last one? I can definitely come up with a list of ten people who deserve to die – pushers and cultists all – but what if I'm wrong? What if nothing happens? This possibility troubles me greatly.

**Nov 10** – Getting closer to the Cup. Last confirmed in the hands of a Valtiel rune master in 1822. Name was Joseph Lallott. I'll keep digging.

**Dec 5** – Idiot! Forgot about my own notes again! Lallott was buried across town. Time to visit my old friend.

**Dec 6** – Despite our earlier understanding, Bulger wasn't very happy to see me. He was aggressive, belligerent and threatened to call the police. I stunned him with a ward and shot him in the back of the head. Exhuming Lallott (man, am I getting too used to dealing with bodies) I found the bones of the long dead Fater still clutching the Obsidian Chalice. Nearly cried with joy. I buried the grave keeper in with my predecessor to satisfy my sense of irony and took home my prize.

**Dec 15 **– I've had a few days to think it over, rolling the Cup in my hands. It's heavy, heavier than it looks. Has to be, I guess. I have to fit the blood of 11 people and some PVT oil in it. I'm laying here in bed, knowing that I can start the Sacraments whenever I want to. I've even been day dreaming about how I'm going to take my victims.

I think a lot about Jennifer Carroll, Jacob Stahl and the countless others the Order has hurt over the centuries. Not to mention the natives who came long before them and whose genocide this country was built on. I'm reading what I can about the great seal placed here long ago and the "anger of the land". I want to look more into this as well as see if I can discern the resting places of Carroll and Stahl. They deserve more than just a creaky old statue in a park.

**Dec 25 **– Another year? Getting old, old man. Not that this may matter anyway.

**Feb 2 **– Have a lead on Carroll. Her family apparently was greatly disturbed by her death (how they managed to exonerate her when I know for a fact she was what they would deem a witch I'll never know) and wealthy as well. I imagine her arranged marriage was supposed to be an alliance of sorts that went up in smoke (haha, very funny me). Good news is they have a fancy, old time private cemetery.

**Feb 3** – Scoped the place out. I don't like leaving Silent Hill anymore – feel naked with my wards – but it was worth it. Breaking into her tomb I found something priceless: an urn. Her family must have collected her ashes when the burning was done to give her a proper burial. It's been waiting a long time for me to reclaim it.

Brought it home and put it in my room. I should be the one to keep her. There hasn't been a person alive in the last 250 years who knows her as well as I do.

**Feb 5** – Funny thing happened the other day. Put a ward down by Jennifer's ashes and it fell apart on me. Was pretty sure I made it correctly – maybe I'm getting sloppy.

**Feb 9** - The Order has gone too far this time. I am at a loss for words to describe what I have learned. This is big, Carroll's diary big. Going to have to calm down and assess the situation before I can write more. Gods.

**Feb** – My position has afforded me access to one of the Order's best kept and darkest secrets. As the Fater I could not be kept out of the loop forever though I'm impressed they've managed to keep it under wraps for the last six months.

A horrid woman named Dahlia Gillespie had her own child immolated in order to birth the Order's god. I was wrong, they have been trying to bring about this doomsday paradise and consistently failing. This would have been yet another in their long line mercifully over with had the girl not amazingly lived. When they showed her to me, where they were keeping her, pumped full of drugs, bed ridden, riddled with wards to keep her alive I almost lost it and killed them all. The mother, the nurse, the hospital director, all of them. But something stopped me, something better.

In her I felt something old, something powerful, angry. She had enormous potential but it was mostly trapped, contained, almost inert. I understand now. It was the seal of the old ones keeping her at bay. On this holy ground she could not wreak the kind of destruction her crippled body was capable of. Should that seal be lifted...this little girl, this innocent tortured on a daily basis by being forced to live would bring about a doom I cannot even fathom.

**Feb 12** – Can't sleep. Keeping thinking about the Gillespie girl. I only wanted to make the Order pay for their crimes but...this is the last straw. Too many people were compliant in this atrocity. No one is worthy to keep going about their daily lives while this goes on.

I've decided. This will change Silent Hill, forever. There can be no turning back. I will perform the Assumption but no sacrament beyond it. At the same time I will break the seal on Silent Hill and the anger of the land will join with the powerful mind of the Gillespie girl. If nothing happens, then at least I tried. If something horrible happens it won't matter to me as I will have been the final sacrifice.

**March **– Moving forward.

**April 2** – So, more talks with Sandra have led me to a simple conclusion. In her stories the magic encountered by native heroes was often undone with an equal incantation – an uncantation if you will. I know the seal here was made with blood magic, human sacrifice. So I'll craft what will be my greatest challenge yet – a ceremony to undo the seal with human sacrifice powering it. How many people? 211, to be exact. This, combined with my 10 victims and myself as the last will total 222, a mystic configuration.

I'm going to need a lot of cash and fortunately I have it. The rest I can steal – it won't matter if I'm caught. I'll have to deal with human trafficking scum to get that many people and I'll need a crew to assist me. We have mercenary contacts and as Fater I can pull whoever I need to help. Of course they will not know the the true nature of their task until the night in question and all of them – mercs and faithful alike – will be sacrificed as well.

**April 4 **– It's been almost seven months since I first had the idea in my head to really do the Assumption. It was, plainly, for my own benefit. To have the power of heaven in my hand. Now this task before me...this is different. This is not for me, this is for all those who came before and who will come after. It's for Jennifer, Jacob, everyone who has been wronged here in the past and the girl suffering in that hospital bed. She may judge them all with my blessing.

**Apr 7** – Three years after I started this journal I begin the end of it. The date is set, September 12, 1985, the day of reckoning, my birthday in this world and soon the next. On midnight I will begin slitting throats of just over 200 slaves mostly from Africa, the Middle East and Brazil. Then my crew and then myself. It might take all night and well into the day but it must be done. I came here to write a book once and to sell a house. I've written a different book but one much more important than I ever dreamed.

**Apr 14** – Things are being put into motion that can never be undone. I've commissioned a great stone altar to be made and delivered to me. It will be the instrument of five hundred years of holy vengeance and the platform where I will begin anew. I'm going to carve leaves into it...a hundred tiny leaves for the ones who will die upon it. May their souls nourish a tree far greater than themselves.

I must remember to avoid killing those which would fulfill the requirements of the Sacraments in the future. The purifications of Void, Gloom, Despair and the others must be avoided. Only plain, meaningless murders can be made which have no significance to me or to the victims. I also must regularly use similar killing methods; the Sacraments require varied deaths for one's reclaimed souls.

**June 6** – My base will serve as the location. Ancient Mayans once tossed the dead in similar caverns called 'cenotes' – holy sinkholes for the dead that served as passages to the underworld. I honor my distant cousins by recreating their ways.

Upon the hill where the light descended, the Beast intoned his song. With words of blood, drops of mist and the vessel of night the grave become an open field. The people wept in fear and joy at the reunion but my faith in the salvation of Xuchilbara did not waver.

Harken to me now, Daniel Kewahqu, prince of Silent Hill, heir of Jennifer Carroll, steward of the misty land. I am the Fiend with twenty score men and seven thousand beasts. The grave, no, life and death are nothing to me. When I layeth my vengeful striking hammer down all will know salvation in fire.

In your honor Jennifer, guided by Stahl, born from the girl and loosed by my hand, let what we do never be undone.

My last days on Earth come quickly. I visit Jennifer in the park often. I dream of the day that we may be one. Soon, soon. It is not wistful sadness but joy that guideth me. I dream of my ten hearts, my ten sacraments, my ten true loves...

This journal will be rendered indestructible, like the 'Mother', dear Jennifer. Tied to my life it will be.

A warning and an offer, to you reading this. Should you get the urge to follow in my footsteps, know that I will be watching from the shadows. I am the Crimson One, the lies and mist are not they but I. I shall bring down bitter vengeance upon thee and thou shalt suffer my eternal wrath. Should you however wish to worship the misty land...believers, harken to me. Thou shalt ever call upon me and all that is me in the place that is silent.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30: My New Old Friends

Daylight had begun filtering into the room long ago and Julia had not noticed. Mesmerized by the story she was reading she wouldn't have perceived a plane crash outside the house she was so focused on the slanted, hasty cursive on the pages. Setting the journal down when she finished the pilgrim could only stare off into space for some time before it occurred to her the light from the lamp was unnecessary. Leaning over to click it off she set put the journal on the night stand and laid down with her ear to the pillow. Not sleeping she simply stared at the wall as the words and images floating in her troubled mind.

There was so much to think about and so much had been explained. Beyond proof that Nothing was very much a man at one point – a good man at that – it was stupefying in scope. His own self chronicled descent into power and madness was the saddest and scariest thing she'd ever read. The double she met at the seat of his creation had not lied about what she would find. The story of Silent Hill had begun long before humans came to it but it was Daniel and the girl who had altered it forever. It also raised some questions she was not sure if she wanted answered. Where was the girl now? Was she even alive? What about the people in the town that fateful day in 1985?

There slowly stole over her a realization that something had changed since leaving Nowhere, Daniel's own dream, his personal Silent Hill. She was calm in battle, was guided to his well and guided back out before being drawn to this house that she knew exactly where to go to sleep. His house, Julia knew now. It wasn't until this moment that she had the inkling that perhaps her will was not her own when she went there and back. She felt slightly ill, bewildered and incredulous all at once but could not work up true outrage. Some part of him had been given to her along with his blood and too late the pilgrim comprehended the depths of her deal with the Fater.

This still was not even the worst thing she had found out that morning. She had intruded on the resting place of more than 200 souls including Kewahqu himself. Right now she was sleeping in his bed, in his long abandoned house. Sitting up as the weak light gave a soft touch to most of the shadowy room she really looked at it for the first time. Empty, unadorned and hollow it was merely a place to rest. No pictures hung from the peeling walls, no art, no shelves. It was as if a ghost had been living here long before that momentous fall day.

Getting out of bed she numbly walked to the shower and turned on the faucet. It was a little cold and ordinarily she might have been self conscious walking around a stranger's house mostly nude but she was too shell shocked to care. When she turned on the water a torrent of blood came splashing out of it. Aghast she jumped away and blinked only to discover that normal, plain water was running. Julia would have sworn she saw shimmering, almost black blood a second ago and she watched it for a few moments to make sure it her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. The water didn't change and she reluctantly got under the warm stream to wash days worth of grime from her body.

The pilgrim stared at the stained walls of the shower and pictured Daniel doing the same thing almost twenty years ago after killing a man for the first time. She was cautious around him before but he was never outwardly hostile, threatening to her personally. Having seen the world he created, the power it granted him and knowing his story...she shuddered to think about their plan to take him out with a mere bullet. Even Victor only partially understood the true nature of his existence and feral nature. She understood now that even in life Nothing had little compunction or a concept of mercy that certainly did not survive his death. It only made his association with them that much more mysterious.

Stepping out of the shower she went back to the bedroom and used a blanket to dry off. It felt good to be clean for once and the dark haired woman squeezed out her hair to help it dry in the never warm Silent Hill air. Getting dressed but leaving her fighting gloves on the table she headed downstairs. In Daniel's kitchen there were basic dishes and silverware that looked like they'd never been used. Opening a few cabinets and the fridge she found nothing but a few empty cartons of chocolate milk. It looked like a prop house that realtors showed to prospective buyers with its disingenuous evidence of habitation. Heading for the basement she knew that this room at least would not be empty.

The door was just off the kitchen and when she opened it the light barely made it a foot into the overwhelmingly dark passage downward. Flicking on the basement light didn't help very much and she went down creaky wooden steps to an all dirt floor. Black, rich soil that looked and felt surprisingly fresh was pleasant to her soft, freshly clean feet. The room had been turned into a miniature paper mill with ancient, hardened pulp still sitting on a prep table. Burn marks and unfinished, failed runes were scattered around but true to his words the Fater had left nothing useful or traceable behind.

"This was the turning point for you, wasn't it?" she asked the room half expecting Daniel to be able to hear her somehow. Picking up a scrap of a ward she let it slip out of her hand to the yielding floor. "What if you had never experimented? Or didn't have the touch? None of this would have happened..."

She wondered idly if she too had that gift. It didn't much matter to her though. It had led to this, to ruin for everyone. No wards meant no Fater, no Silent Hill as she knew it. That meant no Victor, no Chuck, never learning about her family or killing her brother. No twisted dreams that haunted her back home...no rush of exhilaration when she felt the thud of gunshots in her chest or when she raised her fists. No insanely dangerous trips through Nowhere or strolls through Tower. She could not forgive Nothing for what he had done but she didn't know if she would want to undo everything that had ever happened to her either.

Returning upstairs she picked up her dirty gloves and brought them to the bathroom to clean. They were little reminders of their reliance on the Dark Man and how they could not afford to turn down his help. Returning them to a polished sheen she marveled about how easily they were cleaned considering how much violence they had been used for. Shaking her head she dried them off and pulled them on before going to the bedroom. Stuffing the journal down her shirt she slipped out of the house and back onto the streets.

She going the way she originally came Julia cut over left after a few blocks. Almost unarmed she should have felt naked out here in the mist but she wasn't, not by a long shot. If anything she was more confident than ever and only a natural disaster would keep her from getting back to the apartments. Luckily there was no resistance all the way to the front of the run down building they had been using as a base and she went up the stairs with a spring in her step. When she reached apartment 45 the door was locked and she simply twisted it with extra force to break it open.

Letting herself in she found Chuck on the couch and he jumped up when she entered. "Julia! Thank heavens!" he exclaimed. "Are you okay!?"

"Yes, of course, why wouldn't I be?" she asked. "Never mind me, what about you?" The Canadian – no, the Silent Hill native who only thought he was – was sporting a number of nasty bruises and was scabbed all over his face but they were at least healing well.

"Man it was...it was crazy. I can't even start" he shivered. "We should be dead right now."

"Fuck, you're telling me." she shook her head. "You're not going to believe where I've been and what I've seen. Hey, we're okay though now, yeah? It's good to see you."

Though it was a little awkward she hugged the younger man. It was nice to be in the company of friends again and she would not soon forget Chuck charging the mercenaries on Victor's behalf. Letting him go she asked, "Is Vic okay?"

"Yeah...physically I guess." he said with concern in his voice.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'd better go talk to him yourself. He's been holed up in the bedroom since it looked like you might not be back."

"Okay I – wait what? Why wouldn't I be back?"

"You've been gone for weeks...?" he offered.

"I saw the two of you a couple days ago." she held out her hand.

"No...we were prisoners for at least four days. It's been ten since we made it back here." he explained.

"But..." she trailed off.

"Where have you been?"

"I left Nowhere yesterday." she asserted. "I'm positive. It's only been one day."

"I've been counting the days like I was locked in a cell." Chuck shrugged. "I'm sure it's been that long."

"Did Nothing help you guys out?"

"Fuck yeah he did." Chuck's eyes widened. "You should have seen it. The two of them turned the hospital we were locked up in into a graveyard."

"He left just a few minutes before I did..." she scrunched her face in thought. "Screw it, we'll work it out later. I want to see Vic. Here, read this." she said and pulled out the journal.

"What's this? Why was it in your shirt?"

"You'll see." she assured him and went to the bedroom door. Going inside she shut it quietly behind her to see Victor laying on the bed. Prone on his side he was facing away and had his eyes closed as she sat beside him. Opening his eyes the knight looked weary beyond belief. The last time she saw him she thought he was dead and despite her intention to keep it together she fought back the emotions threatening to bubble over in her.

"Are you real?" he croaked.

"I'm real, sweetie." she smiled and her voice almost cracked.

"I've been dreaming of you." he said dreamily. "Thought maybe you were lost in Nowhere. Couldn't find your way home."

He sat up to take her hands and the pilgrim could contain herself no longer. Throwing her arms around his neck she squeezed until her arms hurt and began covering his face in kisses. Her man seemed a little distracted while she did her best to cover every inch of his features.

"What's...wrong...with...you?" she asked in between pecks.

"I've been a mess without you." he admitted.

"I thought you died in that hallway." she trembled at the memory when she stopped.

Tracing her jawline with his fingers gently he whispered, "As long as there's a breath in my body I will always find my way back to you...maybe even after that too."

She let out an emotion filled breath and smiled weakly as she looked into his eyes. There was a dullness there that she didn't recognize nor like. "What did they do to you?" she murmured.

"I don't know. Some kind of rune enhanced hypnosis. They were breaking my mind into pieces so that I would not be able to tell their fantasy from reality. With months of it I could have been completely under their control. Like a puppet."

"Oh Vic..." she hugged him tightly.

"I'm not...the same. I get angry, I can't remember things, basic things. I can't tell if my thoughts are my own anymore..."

"Victor Rosencrantz!" she suddenly scolded him. "I know who you are! Whatever they did to you, I will undo it, understand?"

Taken back by her adamancy he then nodded blankly. "You have always been my salvation, Julia Stormson. Since the day you came screaming into my life. I don't know what would have happened to me if I'd never met you."

She felt a pang of guilt knowing that Victor may have quite literally become Nothing if not for her unwitting interference but that was a conversation for later. "Why don't we send Chuck out to pick berries or something and have some alone time?" she suggested.

"Oh, great spirits, I was hoping you were going to say that."

Getting up Julia opened the door and leaned out into the living room where Chuck was reading the journal.

"Hey Chuck."

"Yeah?"

"Fuck off for a while."

"Right." he said and picked up a shotgun on his way out of the apartment. Shutting the door the jumped back onto the bed and wiggled next to Victor.

Rolling his eyes up and down her body he made a face. "What happened to your shoes?" he asked. Looking down Julia took note of the fact that she'd been barefoot the last two days and didn't seem to notice. Crawling through the forest should have highlighted this fact but she didn't recall the slightest bit of discomfort the entire time. Not in the mood to worry about it now she let it go for the moment.

"Uh...green goop...long story." she sighed. "I'll tell you all about Nowhere later."

Tugging her gloves off she started throwing articles of clothing to the side. It had been a crazy, roundabout way back but it was good to be on Earth again.

* * *

Many hours later night was beginning to fall and they heard Chuck return to rummage around before heading to the room on the opposite side of the apartment. No doubt he had finished the journal by now and wouldn't be in the best of moods. Julia decided not to intrude for the moment; he would undoubtedly need time to absorb what he read and come to terms with it.

Laying under the covers the pilgrim felt a happy warmth that she had been missing since coming here. It was a pleasant last few hours and a good recharge from what she had been dealing with. They'd already talked about what happened to each other and Julia had to be amazed at the lengths the Order would go through to keep the knight subjugated. He in turn was astounded by what she had seen in Nowhere and deeply disturbed by Kewahqu's hide out. She left out the part about her deal with him and what exactly was in the journal. The former she did not want him to know about just yet and the latter he would find out for himself shortly. She also left out the details of the altar she'd found and the implications about the creation of his armor.

They dozed off and on for a few more hours but when Victor stirred next to her Julia had to get a few things straightened out. Nudging him he growled at her but she persisted until he turned over to look at her.

"Hmm."

"Fater told me something. Something I didn't want to believe. Want to know if it's true or not."

"Okay...?"

"Those books you took when we left Silent Hill for the first time. What was in them that you needed to keep away from other people?"

"I told you already, forbidden magic, rituals, blood offerings. The kind that could be misused for great harm."

"Misused by others...or did you want them for yourself?" she asked plainly.

"What are you talking about? What are you accusing me of?" he said defensively.

"The Fater said you wanted them so you could find the materials for the Sacraments yourself."

"Now hold on, that's not entirely true." he protested quickly.

"Aha! So it's not exactly untrue either!"

"Of course I was looking for the texts on the Sacraments! Look at what happened! If had taken all of them out with us the Order would have never found them and we wouldn't be in this mess."

"And when exactly were you going to tell me you were planning on performing the Assumption!?" she confronted.

"Jewel, calm down-"

"I will not! How can you sit there and tell me you had any plans to eventually murder ten people and somehow failed to mention this after all we've been through-"

"It wasn't my idea, all right!?" he shouted over her. Victor rarely raised his voice and hated to interrupt people so she was a bit caught off guard. Still incensed she expectantly waited for an explanation.

"It was his." the knight said sadly in a lower tone. "He always bade me to 'seek out what was writ' so I could keep them from the Order's hands...and when the time came to elevate myself if it was necessary."

"You don't want to be like him. Trust me."

"I know. But it didn't seem like the worst idea ever at the time. What else did I have to live for? Who knows when the Order would have caught up with me. What if I started to get sick or had an infection I couldn't beat? What if I lost an arm?"

He gathered his thoughts before continuing to defend himself. "This was long before I met you. I have no illusions about the Fater but he was right about this. We were the only ones who understood how dangerous the Order was. If he fell...there wouldn't be much stopping them from taking over. Look what happened when they put him in that well. If we hadn't come there's a good chance they'd be done with the Sacraments by now."

She thought about what she said but the knight wasn't getting off the hook so easily. "And what about the murders you would have done in the name of protecting this place?"

"No! You've got it wrong. I would have used the hearts of the monsters around town. They're never in short supply."

She wrinkled her nose as she had not thought about this possibility. "What? Would that have even worked?"

"I don't know to be honest." he shrugged. "The entire time I lived here I never even met ten people. You were the fourth in seven years. Besides...I don't know if I could have gone through with it. Like I said, things have changed a lot since then."

Rage was draining from her but the pilgrim didn't want him to think he was out of the doghouse. "I'm still mad at you, mister." she waggled her finger at him.

"I apologize, truly. What was I supposed to tell you? It was just a plan if things went completely to hell. I'm sure there's things in your past you wouldn't want to tell me."

She thought of the blood running through her system again and let it go. "Yes, you're right. I'm sorry I got upset before you had a chance to explain yourself."

"It's okay. If you took everything calmly you wouldn't be Julia Stormson."

She laughed and laid back down to look up at the ceiling. They were quiet for a long while before something else came to her to say. "What do you think about our chances against your old boss?"

"Against Marcus Stone and his cronies? Very good. Against his resonance? I don't know."

"We've got Nothing on our side. He's back to full strength. We'll win."

"You sound pretty sure of yourself."

"I know his story now, Vic. You didn't see the Lightening, it was insane. He's got a whole world at his back and there's no compassion, no quit in him. You were always right about what kind of person he is but it's more than that. He worships this place. He'll die for it, already has."

The knight looked troubled as he took in what she said. Rising from the bed she put on some clothes and snuck out to the living room. The journal was sitting on the table and she left it there as she starting heating up what passed for dinner. Getting several MREs going she took the book back to the bedroom and tossed it at her man. "Have fun with this. I'm going to check on Chuck, make sure he's okay after reading it."

"That bad?" Victor mused almost to himself.

"Worse."

Heading over to the opposite side of the apartment she knocked on Chuck's door. "Come in." she heard him say and entered the dark room. It was hard to discern what he was doing in the low light but he was curled up on top of his bed and staring into space as best she could tell.

"You all right?" she asked.

"Not sure." he replied. It was always hard getting a read on the impassive killer. He wasn't particularly excitable and often had a placid expression on his face even in times of crises. It was his words that gave the most clues to his current mood.

"It's a lot to take in." she leaned on his door threshold.

"You don't even know." he said glumly.

"What do you mean?"

"He might not have meant much to you guys but he was my only friend for a long time. Two years I've been pent up in that hospital with no one to talk to but doctors, nurses and other crazies."

"We're your friends too Chuck."

"I know but...all my time there he was my only visitor, my only contact with the outside. He gave me something to look forward to, something to stop me from killing myself. You don't know the guilt that I have."

"I do." she said softly. "My brother. The only living relative I had...I stabbed him in the neck with a knife."

"Ah..."

"I just wanted to find him, talk to him, have a real connection to my past. I thought it would teach me about who I really was. It did, in a way. Coming to Silent Hill made me stronger, tougher than I ever thought I could be. But do I regret it? Did I want to kill Alex? No...no I didn't. I think of him sometimes and if what I did was right."

Chuck sat up to sit on the side of his bed. "I'm sorry, Julia. I just think about it so much. You and Victor, you've had really hard lives too. I forget because you never show it. I don't know how to not show it."

"It's okay. Just know that you can always come with us, that Nothing isn't your only friend."

"Yeah..." he trailed off. "I don't know about him anymore. I'd be dead or still crazy if it wasn't for the Dark Man but all those people...this town. How am I supposed to be thankful for what he did for me knowing what I do now?"

"You're going to have to decide for yourself what to think, kiddo." she answered. "We'll talk about it more in the morning. Get some sleep."

"All right...and Julia?"

"Yes?"

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Heh, me too."

Shutting the door behind her the pilgrim swung back to the kitchen to pick up the steaming mush that served as food. Piling them in the next room she locked their door and threw off the clothes she was wearing. Victor didn't seem to notice her and she shook her bare chest in his direction. The knight didn't even look her way as she sighed and brought the food into bed with her.

"Chuck's hung himself in the other room. I talked to him about cramming the main line yesterday. He mentioned that he loves fish." she told him assuming that he would only hear about ten percent of what she was saying.

"Uh huh." Victor barely acknowledged as he turned the old pages.

"Don't stay up too late." she said as she dug into the MRE.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Truth Hurts

Gathering in the living room the next morning the three of them ate with each other in silence. Only Julia seemed to be in a decent enough mood; Victor certainly wasn't and Chuck was having a bad day. The knight had read Nothing's journal twice and could hardly believe it the second time as much as the first. He knew that the Fater was responsible for heinous crimes but he assumed that this was limited to his Sacraments and actions against the Order. He would never have imagined just how far the shade was willing to go for vengeance with complete disregard to anything or anyone else. He was evil on a mass murderer level both in life and death but what did that make them for working with him?

Victor listened in as Julia told her story literally running through Nowhere to Chuck. The knight would not admit it to anyone else but he was fascinated with the details of the twisted realm. Very much what he imagined the Fater's home to be like he also knew that it was that way purely on the whim of Nothing. To have god like power in his own dream...one had to wonder what else could be made. Again the Silent Hill native could not reconcile the pros and cons of such things.

All things considered the Canadian took it fairly well. He had put so much misguided faith in the Fater and it was coming back to haunt him now. When the dark haired woman was done they spent a few minutes taking it in and sipping black coffee.

"Well...damn." Chuck said finally.

"Pretty much." Julia agreed.

"A dragon attacked you?"

"Yep. It would have been cool if it wasn't busy killing my new friends and trying to eat me." she shrugged.

"What the hell are we going to do?" Chuck asked hopelessly.

"Find Stone and kill him." Victor answered. "Kill the Sacrament maker too. There is no other choice here."

"I mean about the Dark Man."

"Oh. Ah...yeah..." Victor stumbled. "I don't really know."

"How would we even go about doing that? Ideas?" Julia wondered.

"I've got a few." Victor replied. "But stopping the Order comes first. Nullifying the Descent is our top priority. Whoever managed to imprison our benefactor is going to be more than we can deal with by ourselves. We need him right now."

"What about after that?" the killer persisted. "Knowing what we know now...is it right to leave the Dark Man here to run around? What about the girl? If we get rid of them who hangs around making sure it doesn't happen again?"

It was a good question and one that Victor was unable to answer even for himself. He didn't necessarily prefer this life to the outside one but who else in their right mind would be here to keep the Order from setting up shop? The food was terrible, the hazards many and the pay was practically non-existent. It was true though that there wasn't a single place on Earth like Silent Hill and the mist seemed to call to him when he was away from it. He also had Julia to think about now and while the long years in walking distance of Lake Toluca made him tough they also made him lonely. The short, fiery woman was his life line to the real world, other people, love. The knight wasn't sure anymore if he could go back to an existence that didn't include Julia Stormson.

"Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to leave." she suggested and Victor had to do a double take to make sure he had heard her right.

"Wha?"

"If we'd been here already we might have prevented all of this." she added.

Chuck nodded in agreement and for once Victor found himself the odd man out on the issue. "You think that's a good idea?"

"No, I'm just saying maybe we shouldn't just rush out of here right away."

"I'm not going anywhere." Chuck announced. "Even after we win."

"Wait, what? Are you sure?" Julia inquired worriedly.

"The two of you have things waiting for you out there. I don't. Just a small room and a steel bed...lots of bad memories. If I stay, I won't be able to hurt anyone but myself. Maybe I can help people that wander in and get lost."

"That's...are you sure?" Victor checked.

"I've been thinking about it since I got here." the killer answered. "This whole business with the Dark Man just confirms it. People should have a helping hand if they get themselves into trouble here. I could be that person. Not like I have much else to live for."

Victor ruminated on this and could not find fault in the Canadian's thinking. What else would he do with himself if not for his very significant other? "What about the girl?" that very person asked .

"What about her?"

"Shouldn't we...I don't know...do something?"

"I wouldn't even know where to start looking for her." Victor shook his head. "And who knows what would be protecting her if all of this was her dream."

"Dark Man would know where she was."

"Good luck convincing him to tell you."

"What I wouldn't give to put the screws to that guy and make him talk straight for once." Julia sighed.

"Gentlemen, your conversation makes for interesting listening." Nothing grated from nearby and Victor nearly jumped up to the next floor off the couch. Looking around wildly he spotted the Fater laying down on the ceiling in the kitchen shrouded in shadow. The three of them did not expect his presence and Victor was genuinely worried that he'd been able to sneak up on them like that.

"How long have you been there!?" the knight demanded.

"Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear." the shade said without moving.

Looking at his stunned companions Victor edged forward. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

"Do I?" the Fater asked sardonically. "And you would force answers from me? An ant against a mountain..."

"We know who you are...or were...Daniel Kewahqu." Julia said.

Sitting up so that his torso hung from the top of the room he looked like he was on a lawn chair only on the wrong side of the floor. "Aaaahhhhh..." he trembled. "There is a name I have not heard in a long, long time..."

"We know what you did. What really happened in 1985."

"What of it?" Nothing asked without concern.

"All of this is your fault!" she cried. "Not to mention all the people you killed!"

Getting to his feet on the ceiling he crouched down on it and suddenly fell to the floor. Twisting like a cat mid air the shade landed on one knee and looked up at them with his dead eyes. He took a few deliberate steps into the living room and Victor fought the urge to go for the very sword the Fater had given him. It wouldn't have helped anyway.

"You think you know me?" Nothing awkwardly changed his voice and tilted his head back. "Me got booooy...boy me got.". Taking another step towards them Victor held his ground for no other reason than knowing doing anything else would not matter much.

"I have balanced the sins of the past and you would dare judge?" the Fater asked incredulously in his normal if gnashing voice. "You three who have taken lives in joyous combat? How many have you slain, Julia Stormson? Victor Rosencrantz? Charles Taylor?"

They could not answer and the shade raged on as he paced in front of them. "A room a killers we are and a room of killers the misty land requires. It needeth you now after it has given you everything you wished for, yet still you would deny its holiness?

"You! The family you sought your whole life!" he pointed an accusing finger at Julia. "The truth of yourself and Sandy Williams!" he turned to Chuck.

"And you, Victor Rosencrantz, it gave you everything. Took you in, nourished you, taught you techniques, gave you a reason to live. Yet you three would pretend you have not been made greater by it...?" he asked sadly. Victor tried to come up with a response but could not think of anything to say and apparently neither could his friends.

Composing himself the Fater continued with the slithering tone of a winding snake. "You owe this holy land and I am its guardian. Destroy the Order's ambition and I will release you from this place...if that is your desire. The memory of this land is long, long and accurate. It will remember your deeds to save it should you choose to remain."

"The land's memory is long or is the Gillespie girl's?" Victor dared to ask.

"Do not question that which you do not understand." Nothing growled.

"Where is she?"

The shade laughed and the sound was like nails on a chalk board to his ears. "And what would a solitary man do with this knowledge?"

"This dream has gone on long enough, Fater. Let it end and give her a measure of peace." but Nothing was already shaking his head.

"You grasp at matters you cannot fathom. The anger of the land needed her, her and her potential. That cocoon of pain and charred flesh become both slave and master. But no longer...the flame is lit, the cord severed, the gate opening and shutting at his will."

"What's he talking about Vic?" Julia whispered.

"He's saying...I think he's saying...that Silent Hill is awake now with or without the girl. It's grown beyond her."

"Brava, brava, bravissima." Nothing clapped at him.

"Why did you help me?" Chuck blurted out.

"Why, Charles Taylor, we are friends, aren't we? You asked and thou receiveth."

"You buried hundreds of people. Why the hell do you want friends?" the killer asked angrily.

"I needed you. All of you." he explained. "The misty land's enemies never rest and neither must we. You are not the only allies I have, simply the best."

"Those people who got us to come here on the outside." Julia reasoned.

"You were born here, Charlos Taylor." Nothing announced as if Julia hadn't spoken. "And here has called you back, all of us. This makes us family, does it not?" he asked with false, saccharine sweetness.

Victor was taken aback by this revelation about the killer but Julia didn't seem fazed by it. "And you, coming back to sell that house. You never mentioned whose it was or whose inheritance you were claiming. It was your parents', wasn't it?"

The shade didn't answer and she went on. "You were an orphan, right? Like the rest of us?"

Nothing grinned and Victor flinched at the sight. Chuck had to sit down and the pilgrim put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry Chuck. They probably didn't want you to know."

Victor was amazed but it made a twisted sort of logic that fit in with the Fater's style. The knight couldn't help but snicker humorlessly at the whole thing. "Who better to defend Silent Hill than those of us with no other real home? No other family. Is that what you thought?"

"So like me, in my time on Earth, you all are."

"That's why you set all of this stuff up. In case anything happened to you. How long did you leave the stash here for us to find? Months? Years?"

The shade spread his hands as if to say, 'so what?' and Julia asked, "Where did you get off using your altar for Victor's armor? Did you think we wouldn't find out where it came from?"

"The greatest of materials serves little use without potency." Nothing said. "As black gave way to green so too does stone become greater than the ordinary. That which once was cold and inert become lively and pliable through purification."

"Uh...Vic, translation?" she asked but the knight was already reeling from the implication.

"Oh, gods..."

"What?"

"The 'leaves'. Not the ones he carved in but the metaphorical ones, his victims. They're what turned it green and also gave my armor its strength beyond normal rock." he said in disgust. "I was protected in part by the essence of his victims."

"Oh. Oh! OH!" Julia stammered. "That's terrible!" Nothing seemed to be enjoying this while Chuck looked mildly upset but no doubt he was still dealing with his own problems. Something clicked in his mind and gave Victor the confidence to say what he had put together since reading the journal.

"The ashes...the ones you gave us a small bag of...they were the cremated remains of Jennifer Carroll, weren't they?" and the Fater only began laughing raucously as a response. Ignoring the aghast faces of his companions Victor continued with his reasoning. "You smash through wards and spells like they weren't there. She must have been burned at the stake with crow bone charm still around her neck. And you found out her remains broke wards even after all those years...so you ate them before you killed yourself. That's what's running in your veins isn't it? Why your blood is black?"

"What!?" Julia exclaimed hysterically for some reason.

"Very good, Victor Rosencrantz." the Fater admired. "There is not much left to teach thee. All that remaineth is your Sacraments. Do as I have done and ingest a part of the Mother before your Assumption and no earthly spell shall harm thee."

"I will not." he refused.

"When the time is right, a true believer will take up my mantle." he assured them.

"Someone already has." Victor pointed out.

"Verily, and oblivion is his fate. I have decreed it thus." Nothing said grandly. "Sayeth your final prayers, O vessels of vengeance, for the hour of reckoning approacheth. At his island Marcus Stone and judgment awaits. We must not disappoint."

Holding up two fingers he dragged them down in front of his face and Victor's eyes closed along with the downward motion. It took the knight a few seconds to realize there was no outside force acting on his eyelids and when he opened them the Fater was gone. Sighing he slumped down onto the couch in a daze and Julia slowly came to sit beside him to cling onto his arm. Chuck looked completely pale and obviously was not taking the news well.

"So." Julia cleared her throat. "We've been putting dead person on our foreheads."

"My parents weren't my parents." Chuck lamented.

"I've been running around in unholy armor." Victor chimed in.

"Hey uh, Vic?"

"Yes Jewel?"

"About his blood..."

"Yeah?"

"Ah...you know what, never mind, answered my own question." she said suddenly.

"Oh...okay."

It was some time before any of them spoke again. Chuck got up to drink some water from the dirty faucet and came back to the group with a forlorn look on his saddened features. "I'm going to go lay down for a bit."

He left the room and Victor looked over to Julia. She looked a little shaken but was still strong and clear eyed. What was going to happen she would be there to watch his back and this gave him the security to attempt anything. They would have a long overdue meeting with Marcus Stone and the only thing the knight could hope for was that it was over quickly. Things rarely went according to plan here in this sleepy, mist laden place though.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Last Rites

They decided that it would be best to take the day off to better mentally prepare for the final assault on the Order. It was a good chance to do some thinking and say a couple of goodbyes for the compact woman sidling along the darkened buildings of the town. Even with the mist Julia did not have a hard time finding what she was after departing their apartment base. Barefoot and alone she should have felt more awkward and afraid going to a place like this but she had bigger concerns. The large oak tree was just the way she remembered it and the two plain graves had not changed either. It had been more than two years since she was last here and a lot in her life had changed since then. What hadn't was this place and her promise to the two long dead people interred under her feet.

"Hi guys." she said to the cold stones. "It's good to see you again."

The pilgrim traced the engraved letters and numbers with her fingers lovingly and hovered over the names "Jason" and "Emily". Such a strong name for her father, such a pretty one for her mother. She thought of them often while she was here and what they were like, wondered which activities they enjoyed doing, the music they listened to. Victor had once asked her which of them had given her the nickname of 'Jewel' but she couldn't remember. If she had to guess it must have been her mom. Not to besmirch her father but it just seemed like too cutesy of a name for a man to come up with.

The newspaper clipping that brought her here, the one she recently found out had been sent to her by the Fater, was back at home and sealed in glass. From it and the grainy family photo she knew that she resembled her mother, strong jawed, black haired, short. It was impossible for any orphan or adopted child to ignore the what ifs and could have beens that plagued their lives. It was a wound that never truly healed but she'd learned to live with it and make her peace with her erstwhile brother, Alex. It was hard to hold a grudge against the man when she had killed him herself and the knife she used to do it was buried just a couple inches away.

"I wanted to thank you for watching over Victor. He's a good man, isn't he?" she asked the graves. "I think that if I brought him home you two would have liked him."

Taking a seat she felt a little strange talking out loud but didn't care. There was no one around to judge her, not here. "Chuck is a good person at heart, too. Going to need your help a little longer keeping them safe so we can finish this."

Sighing the pilgrim stared off into space as the quiet mist swirled around them. "Can I tell you guys something? I can tell you anything, right?" she asked as if there was an answer forthcoming. "I'm...not so sure I want to leave. I know, it's horrible, but what else if there for me back home? You're here, Vic's here...what's wrong with us that we can't get enough of this place? I wish you were alive so you could tell me what to do...I wish you were alive for a lot of reasons."

Rising to her feet she walked away from the graves before she became too melancholy. The shore was nearby and the embankment ended in a tiny cliff where the lapping waves of Lake Toluca barely made a sound. Selecting a couple smooth, light rocks from the sand she skipped them out over the water and made a couple wishes.

* * *

Though his mind had been tampered with and his memory skewed the knight still found his destination without thought. While he could not summon a complete map of the town at will this memory at least was unassailable, incorruptible. It was a dangerous place to return to but he knew now that the Order would not be looking for him at the moment. They were busy trying to hide from the might of Nowhere and they did not yet know that they had already failed.

Picking through the ruins of his apartment Victor thought of his earliest memories of Silent Hill. He remembered his mother being happy, smiling, care free. The Vermont trees he grew up around were not so different than the ones hemming them in here in the town of his birth. The knight wondered many times if they had moved relatively close by because his mother missed the Place of Silent Spirits.

It had been a long while since he'd last dwelt on her and what his life would have been like had she lived. It must have been this place and how much time he had spent in it both before and after September 1985. It was a peculiar kind of fate that had been left to him and the other two he traveled with. Had tragedy and calamity not taken them from Silent Hill in the first place then Daniel Kewahqu's vengeance would have most assuredly brought an even worse end upon them.

Clearing his favorite old chair of the debris the Order's strike team had left he sat down and closed his eyes. He was still a little tired and this was something he had once never worried about. Victor took a minute to muse on his steady progression away from human constraints when he first lived here. He slowly stayed up later and later and was asleep for shorter and shorter periods until one day he simply stopped doing it. Hoarding food when he found it he ate less and less until it would go untouched. Before the darkness came he felt it in his bones like a change in the air pressure before a storm. It sounded silly at the time but when Julia said he was coming with her to the outside world though there was a very good chance he'd died a long time ago and was simply a ghost too stubborn to realize it was time to leave the physical world.

It wasn't so bad here all by himself but...sometimes it was. The encounter where Nothing slaughtered the Order's adepts would haunt him for years afterward as would the occasional and disturbing signs that the Fater was keeping tabs on him. The first time he saw Pyramid Head it was deep in the bowels of Brookhaven where it was busy massacring dolls seemingly just for sport. The knight had never run so fast or hid so cowardly in his entire life and would be plagued by nightmares for weeks. There were at least a dozen close calls in the darkness where Victor barely escaped with his life and it was mostly thanks to the arcane training by the man he wanted so desperately to kill. He should have known Stone would not live and let live. He should have acted earlier. He shouldn't have left.

No, that wasn't right. Moving to the desk where he'd traced out hundreds, a thousand wards and runes he knew that leaving had been the right choice because it brought him together with Julia Stormson. Out of all the boons Silent Hill had ever given him she was most precious by far. Fierce, loyal, supportive and intelligent she was everything he could have hoped for in a beautiful woman who for some reason wanted to be with him. Because of this he could never tell her exactly how far he had gone for his own Assumption before he met her or how much he longed for Silent Hill when they were away. It was difficult for anyone, excepting perhaps Nothing himself, to understand his deep connection to his homeland but the knight knew one thing: if Julia decided that they would leave the misty land for good he would follow her. He did not track her across town, bring her to the depths of that horrid hospital and face down Pyramid Head to let anything happen to her now. They had been through too much, spent too much time watching each other's backs...spent too much time in bed together for him to be able to leave her behind.

Walking to the center of the old apartment the knight went to one knee and laid his wavy, killing blade down next to him. Its skull cross piece glinted in the light with the flesh slicing hand guards promising bodily harm where ever the blade made contact with an enemy. He wanted nothing more than to skewer Stone with it, to feel his body shake as the life left it but for the moment Victor put aside the roiling, fathomless hatred for the Order Master. Marcus had taught him long ago how to pray to the Old Gods and while Victor didn't expect any favors he still knew how to ask. It couldn't hurt to try.

Clasping his hands in front of him and closing his eyes he said, "Spirits, are you here with us? Spirits, from the sunrise, from the sunset, hear my voice, see my sweat, feel my blood. You who rule over snakes, grant us our lives, let your stars guide us. Be our dawn and our hope, abandon us not..."

* * *

Sitting by himself in the ammunition room he spent his time filling every clip they had with bullets. It was repetitive and dull, not to mention after the fifth clip it became sore on the thumb. Chuck hated having time to think as his thoughts always drifted to placed he did not want them to go.

He decided to focus on imagining a positive outcome to the impending battle. Everyone surviving intact and their enemies dead in the dust sounded like an acceptable finale to him. While they had earlier been hesitant to use deadly force against the mercenaries and the Order he saw now that this was a mistake. The mercs didn't care about sparing their lives and despite the killer's mantra to never take another life this simply could not be helped. He had healed up well in the last couple weeks from receiving their hospitality but he was still sore in a few places the bats had struck repeatedly. Adding to this was the trauma from the bullets that knocked him down. They were stopped by the vest he wore but it still felt like getting hit with a sledgehammer, minus the kevlar. They were constant, physical reminders of the people he was dealing with and fighting against.

Shifting to after the battle he thought about visiting his 'parents' but he knew that this wasn't a great idea. He'd caused them enough grief already and they weren't even his birth parents. How could he ever face them again? It was bad enough that he was a convicted murderer but worse that they had hid his past from him for his entire life. He would not even know where to begin if he went home. No, there was little waiting for him beyond the city limits. What was he but an escaped mental patient to anyone else? What was he to himself for that matter? It wasn't anyone else beating Sandy to death.

Just like that he'd come right back to the most painful, terrible moment that had defined his short life. Everything began and ended with those few hazy, blood red minutes where he had taken away his own future. It was never too far off in his mind when things slowed down and he had time for retrospection. Still, he was grateful that he had such vivid memories of what he did that were unclouded by his psyche. The alternative, not knowing what had happened, was much worse. Accepting responsibility for his actions was the key to being able to operate under the massive weight of his crime.

This is what drove him to finish their treacherous and bloody task. It was a chance to do right that it might in some way undo the wrong he had wrought. If they won he would dedicate his life to helping others and making sure no one made the same mistakes he did if at all possible. He once had the idea to work with the Dark Man directly in this but now he wasn't so sure. Knowing what he did about the shade was unsettling at best. Could he bring himself to remain allies with a murderer of that proportion? True the killer was no saint but Nothing was an atrocity level menace.

On the other hand it was hard to dismiss his best and only ally since all of this happened. His imaginary friend Troy turned out to be exactly that and other than Julia and Victor he had no other acquaintances to speak of. If there was one person other than Sandy Williams who was most responsible for altering his life forever it was the Dark Man and somehow the ghost did it for the better. The why of it still eluded him but Chuck was confident that eventually he would learn the motivations of the maniac responsible for so much of Silent Hill's madness.

Realizing that he had been spacing out for some time Chuck looked down at the clip in his hands. It had long since been filled and he set it aside to pick up another. They still had shotguns and rifles left but who knows what would happen when they attacked the Order's stronghold. Conventional firearms might not be enough to deal with whatever they would face. Looking around Chuck saw the grenade sling he'd passed over before and decided to see how well it would fit.

* * *

Piously sitting cross legged on the cold floor of the throne room the Fater fiddled with the leaves at his bare feet. Scattered out in front of him were the eight bone daggers still stained with Order blood. No matter how deeply they drank the life fluid of the dark clergy the weapons' thirst could never be slaked and neither would their owner's. The master of Nowhere should have been pleased at the progress they were making but he wasn't, never. There could be no satisfaction, no end to his vendetta until every last Order member lay dead at his feet.

Troubled and irritable he waited for the call to come across the dimensions to his ears. Healed and almost fully powered he could only pass the time as his earthly allies prepared to bring the fight to Marcus Stone and his hated resonance. Meanwhile all of his realm was in a week long party to rejoice in the their light-collecting spoils and no wars would be allowed for the duration of the holiday. Normally this was a time for merriment but the Spirit of the Night Air was in a foul mood indeed.

"_You do not join the festivities_?" Tower whispered in his mind.

"What exactly do I have to celebrate?" Nothing asked redundantly. The building knew full well the answer to the question, it simply could not help but bring things up. He had given the structure far too much intelligence when creating it.

"_You always join in the post-Lightening revelry._"

"Not this time." he said as he spun a leaf by its stem with his thumb and fore finger.

"_Are you unwell, Master_?"

"Anxious, Tower. Everything is riding on them. We have fought this Order heresy for too long to lose now."

"_We cannot fail, Master. Not with you._"

"Can, and have." Nothing corrected. "Already once they caged me. This imposter is at least my rival in power if not my better. He does not, however, have the advantage of surprise this time. We will see who dances with the blades better when next we meet."

Ignoring the sound of raucous partying and laughter rising up from below them he traced patterns in the leaves. The building was suspiciously quiet and Nothing sighed. "What is it?"

"_About Victor Rosencrantz..._"

"Yes, he's making strides isn't he?" the shade beamed. "Stone may have unwittingly succeeded where I have failed. He brims with passion, violence...hate...lust for battle. His dedication to the misty land borders on complete. I could not have done better myself. There is only one caveat..."

"_Julia Stormson?_"

"She drives him from me, nurtures his weaknesses. Had she not proved an extremely capable tool in her own right I would have eliminated her long ago."

"_You would kill a chosen believer?_"

"I would kill all three of them if it would ensure an heir to Jennifer Carroll's legacy. Perhaps in this battle a dagger may slip between her ribs in the dark..."

"_Is she not a candidate herself? And a very viable one at that? Already she bears your blood, Master. Why seek her destruction?_"

"Oh ho ho, a powerful resonance she would be." he shuddered with delight. "She is a vicious portal, worthy of being enshrined in stone. But Victor Rosencrantz would be greater still. I would release my grip on her for him to ascend to my right hand. As it is they rely heavily on each other. If one is lost in the upcoming cleansing...perhaps sorrow may accomplish what lust for power cannot."

The building was quiet a moment before it said, "_Lord Nothing..._"

"Hmm?"

"_May I make a request?_"

"A request? This has not happened since-" he scanned his long memory. "This has never happened."

"_If at all possible, I would like to see Julia Stormson unharmed_."

"Really." the Fater blinked. "This I would have not foreseen."

"_We spoke at length when she passed through me. Praised my garden, admired your works. I like her. I would favor another visit._"

"Ha! You have a soft heart my friend!" Nothing slapped the floor.

"_I make no apologies._"

"All right, request granted. I promise not to harm mine favored pilgrim unless it is absolutely necessary."

"_Thank you, my lord._"

Looking up Nothing visualized the blank spots hovering out in his atmosphere past Tower and the clouds. He did not think the Order was capable of threatening his realm but he'd underestimated them. That they would attempt to raise their own conjurer was a genius move which he did not see coming. They understood that it would take a godly entity to defeat him but this would not be enough either. Even the gods could bleed if one knew where and how to stab.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Das Boot

The morning had come entirely too soon but it was time to get moving. They ate without conversation and double, triple checked their gear before leaving. The knight didn't have much to bring other than the wavy sword on his hip. There were some sheets left but he had no way to transport the delicate sheets and doubted they would be much use anyway. The Fater's ashen blood would carry them through whatever traps they Order could lay. Their strategy for fighting together had worked wonders against the mercenaries before. Sitting back to let the shade take all the attention the knight had rushed in from the flank or rear unnoticed and decimated his enemies before retreating back to the shadows. While wearing kevlar that paled in comparison to his green armor he would have to employ similar tactics again to avoid being shot.

Their unspoken agreement of silence continued as the three morose travelers left the apartment that had been their only safe haven since coming to Silent Hill. It felt like a farewell funeral march but Victor went hand in hand with Julia the whole way. She was somber but alert, resigned but ready for battle at the same time. Forgoing both guns and shoes the she was armed with only her gloves that always seemed to be chilly whenever they locked their fingers together. It seemed to him that she had changed since coming back but he couldn't quite place what exactly it was. The pilgrim seemed stronger, harder...more merciless than before. They would need to be all of those things if they were going to pull this off.

Instead of leading them through Rosewater Park he veered off to the east and where Jacob Stahl had been 'buried'. Partly out of curiosity and a desire to procrastinate just a little longer they gathered at the long dead scholar's tombstone.

"Wonder if all of his stuff is still down there." Julia remarked.

"Probably." the knight nodded.

"Thinking about taking a peek?" Chuck asked.

"Maybe when this is all over." he agreed. "Carroll's diary would also be a good read."

"Crazy, isn't it?" Julia mused.

"Hmm?"

"All of this." she put her hand out at the stone. "It had to happen exactly the way it did. Otherwise this would just be a little resort town with a bunch of crazies and a PVT problem."

"I don't think so." Chuck differed. "Those cult people would have stirred up something eventually."

"Good point."

"Shall we go then?" Victor looked at them.

"Probably should." Julia said. "Just not in a particular hurry."

"Nervous?"

"As I'll ever be. It's never dull in this place at least. Feels like I'm in varying degrees of shock at all times."

"Really?" Chuck wrinkled his nose. "The two of you always look so calm."

"Once you have accepted the inevitability of your own death there is little else to fear, Chuck." Victor observed much to Julia's amusement.

"That's the melodramatic spirit I've been missing." she laughed and the knight swore she did it just to irk him.

"Let's go then." Chuck suggested. "The sooner this is over the better."

Taking the lead again Victor steered them back towards the park the the small pier where boats tended to appear and disappear. It was not certain but there at the water's edge would be their best chance for a way to the island other than swimming. He did not even want to think about how dangerous actually getting into Lake Toluca would be.

With Chuck trailing behind them out of auditory range Julia spoke to the knight quietly. "Hey Vic?"

"Yes?"

"I love you, you know that right?"

"Of course. Do I have to tell you too or is assumed?"

"It's never assumed, you idiot."

"Ah, okay. I love you too, Julia Stormson. I always have."

She smiled triumphantly and squeezed his hand a little tighter. "Not quite the time and place I imagined but I guess it's better than never."

"How did you imagine it?"

"I don't know, maybe on a romantic beach along with some flowers, perhaps a pony. Some kind of sky writing would have been cool, too." she said wistfully.

"Doesn't sound like something I would do." he said seriously and she only giggled.

"No, no it doesn't. I should have known it would be more like this." she looked around at the mist. "Not that I'd have it any other way."

"I know I've been hard to deal with sometimes." he sighed. "Sorry about that. But I want you to know that no matter what happens today, in the end, I'll follow you where ever you go to my last breath...I promise." She looked up at him and they locked eyes a few seconds before the pilgrim latched herself onto his entire arm. As long as Stone lay dead as his feet and the woman on his arm remained alive the knight could live with whatever end that was in store for them.

They slipped through the old, familiar fog to the old dock area built out of stone at the end of Rosewater Park. A small rowboat bobbed at the end of it with encrusted oars floating in the mirror-like water. Piling into the craft they rocked gently in the water as Victor took up the oars himself. Adjusting their position for his taller frame he silently speculated on the possibility that the Fater had brought the boat here himself. Pushing them away from the pier he started to pull back on the wooden poles and move them out onto the glossy water with mist hovering just above the waterline.

"Do you know where you're going?" Chuck asked from the prow of the small boat. With a rifle strapped to his back and sling of grenades on his chest he was pointing a shotgun out in front of them ready for a land war in Asia.

"In a general sense." Victor replied and the other man did not look relieved.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"The island is somewhere in the middle of the lake, that much I know. There's no way to even see it from the shore unless you're out on one of the bridges but I'm bringing us in the direction that's giving me a spot of pressure in my head."

"Pressure? You're getting your ESP back?" Julia asked.

"Incrementally." the knight answered. "We'll see if it's any use shortly."

He rowed for about ten minutes as the dull lump in his frontal lobe guided him to what was no doubt a rude welcoming committee. The monsters of Silent Hill radiated a baleful energy when clustered together and he had often used this fact to avoid running into lethal numbers of them.

"Fuck me!" Chuck said and jumped back from the front of the boat.

"What!?"

"There was...something...in the water!" the killer stumbled.

"What exactly?" Julia pressed.

"Uh...well it damn sure wasn't a fish." he blurted. "If I shoot the water, does that- oh there it is!"

Up ahead of them one could just barely see the wispy outline of a rather large island coming into view and a shadowy pier quite unlike the one they departed from. Barely more than a few blurry lines in the sea of gray Victor was going to comment on keeping the guns quiet until reaching the pier but then something pierced the calm facade around them. In the distance a high pitched, screeching wail that stabbed the knight's ears rose up and seemed to be changing direction as it went.

"Wuh oh." Chuck uttered.

"You know what that was?"

"That...sounds like an old friend of mine and Julia's." the killer gasped. "I thought you shot it in the face!" he accused the woman.

"I did! You're welcome by the way!"

"Quiet, both of you!" Victor hissed. "There's no way it can find us if..." he trailed off.

"If what?" Julia whispered back but it was already too late. He could feel the subtle change in the air that coincided with the Dark One opening the gate. If he hadn't been away so long he could have sensed it earlier but it was upon them already.

"Um...crap." the knight said.

"Oh, this won't be good." Chuck squirmed.

"Things are about to get a lot rustier around here." the knight announced just as the warning siren began to blare from the main land. No matter where he was in the town the horn never seemed to be coming from nearby as it rolled out over the lake.

"Feck! I knew this was going to happen! I kept it to myself and it happened anyway!" Chuck raged.

"Be still, Chuck. This is no accident but deliberate assault." the knight calmed him as the grinding set in and the light around them started to fade. Abandoning the oars the knight instead gripped onto the side of the boat and clamped down.

"What should we do!?" Julia asked in a panic.

"Do?" the knight snorted. "I'd hold on if I were you."

As complete darkness fell things were muted for a few seconds except for the gentle rocking of the boat. Victor actually wondered if maybe the darkness didn't affect the water and nearly reached for the oars to attempt to move forward when thunder crashed overhead without preceding lightning. Droplets started to hit them and had a gritty consistency which Victor found strange until he was able to smell them. The sludge-like quality of the rain was due to the fact that ashes had been mixed with it and they were soon pelted with an onslaught of the thick globules.

"Well this isn't so bad." Chuck remarked a few feet away in the darkness and just at that moment the storm hit them. Manifesting suddenly and violently their tiny craft was assailed with hurricane wind blowing so hard the sound almost drowned out the crashing waves that slammed into them. The boat was tossed around as if Lake Toluca had a grudge against it staying afloat and it was all Victor could do to keep his grip.

Chuck clicked his light on from the prow and revealed a small portion of the chaos around them. The gray ashen rain, looking white in his tiny beam, pelted them in sheets and was quickly turning the boat gray as malicious black waves pushed them roughly around. Victor was never much of a mariner and he was glad that he was not encased in his armor at the moment. Somehow, over the pandemonium around them, another cry from the worm beast still managed to be heard from nearby and closer than before.

"Wh...I...fth...sth!" Julia yelled at him but he could barely read her lips, let alone hear what she was saying.

"What!?"

Throwing an arm around his head while they were roughly jostled she shouted directly into his ear, "We have to swim for it!"

"I don't think that's a good idea!" he shouted back as a little of the water and ashes slipped into his mouth. She shook her head to indicate that she didn't hear him and turned to smack Chuck on the shoulder. When he turned his face was half grayed out from the rain as the pilgrim made an overhead swimming motion. The killer's eyes went wide and he shook his head vigorously at the idea. Water hit them from seemingly every direction and Victor took one hand off the side of the boat to attempt to clear the mud burning his eyes.

The choice was made for them when a savage swell lifted the small boat up and smashed them sideways into the roiling water. Thrust suddenly into a raging tempest Victor could not see and gulped water as he tried to right himself. Flailing for the boat he was just on he felt nothing around him as he broke to the surface of the lake. Gasping for breath he tasted more ash in his mouth and an oily putridness that would have made him gag if he wasn't so busy trying to get air. Kicking and treading water as best he could as invisible waves rolled into him the knight had no idea where to even go. He could not even see his hands in front of his face, let alone his destination or his companions.

Lightning flashed an eternity later and showed him just how desperate his situation was. The black crests were rising well over his head and obscured everything else. He needed to move even if he didn't know where to go and had to hope that the feral storm did not make him a permanent resident of the lake. Thrashing spiritedly he began to swim as best he could in a random direction with tubs of water being routinely dumped on his head.

Time seemed to not exist as he did everything in his power to keep from drowning but he knew that eventually he would not have the energy to keep this up. The onslaught of the maelstrom would claim his life if it didn't lose steam before he did but to the knight's surprise he saw a glint of light on one of the waves just out of the corner of his eye. Struggling to reorient himself he saw it again and made a frenzied effort to head towards it. A wave lifted him up as he swam and he saw a sweeping light in the distance just before he was thrown under the relentless waves again.

There was no telling what it was but Victor at least had a target. Coming back to the surface he thrashed towards it and from the motion it appeared to be a lighthouse some distance away. Taking what amounted to a deep breath he surged towards what had to be at least a small patch of land and relative safety. His body was beginning to tire already and the sword on his hip was dragging him down but he refused to arrive to a battle empty handed. Swimming mostly underwater with his eyes closed until his lungs burned Victor came up for air to find that he had veered slightly off course. Righting himself he resolved to at least make it to land before he died.

He was still some distance away from the light when he ran into a sandbar. Crashing unexpectedly into solid ground he was confused at first but then realized his fortune. The knight dragged himself from the cruel waters as the first animal to breathe air did millions of years ago and fought just to breathe. Disoriented from the haphazard trip he focused on wriggling forward when a light blinded him. Something strong latched onto his arm and hauled him fully out of the water and onto somewhat more solid ground. He was dragged a little farther before being let go and Victor reached for his sword when he saw Chuck standing over him.

Helping him to his feet the killer immediately started sweeping his flashlight out at the waves again. Victor realized belatedly that there was no lighthouse at all and that his life was saved by the quick thinking of his friend. That Chuck was still doing it meant Julia had not turned up yet either. Taking a few minutes to catch his breath Victor became increasingly more worried that she was still out there in the waves and there was nothing he could do to help. From deeper onto land behind them that shrill, piercing roar cut through the storm and still Chuck continued to sweep his light despite the possibility that whatever was making that noise might be able to find them by it.

So intent was the knight on watching the waves for any signs of Julia he actually jumped when she tapped him on the shoulder. "Yaaaaaah!" he cried to the winds but she was grinning like a mad woman.

"What took you two so long?" she yelled with her dark hair clinging to her ash streaked face. She had never looked better.

"Nice to see you, too!" the killer yelled back and tucked his light into his pocket. "Everyone okay!?"

"Good! Genius idea with the light!" she approved. "Would have never found you without it!"

"Might have saved my life!" Victor added.

"You're welcome! Now what!?"

"Head for the center!" Victor pointed at the direction the howl had come from. "Look for a structure!"

"Stay within arm's reach! Tap if you need to!" Julia advised. Victor took the lead and marched with soggy boots deeper into the island. Increasingly thick bramble led to a copse of black trees and he knew that somewhere in this muck their target would be waiting. The thick rain continued to strike them unabated until they reached the limited protection of the trees. With the foliage foiling forward movement and their visibility reduced to a dozen feet or so they made slow progress searching for Stone's hidey hole.

Victor had forgotten about the ache in his head until now and it was telling him that with every step they took they came closer and closer to a concentration of maliciousness he could only partially perceive. It was useful as he not see much but even if he were blind the pressure would have led him to this spot like a moth to flame. Focusing on keeping his footing on the slippery ground the building practically jumped out at him when he came to it. Coming up against a drab wall messy with rain muck he turned to his companions and held up a finger to his lips for silence. It would likely not matter much in the middle of the storm but it never hurt to strike first. They pointed their lights at the ground instead of facing forward and circled around to discover that the building had but one, doorless entrance.

Daring to go inside they found nothing but a simple concrete building with stained, mossy floors and walls. It at least provided a welcome reprieve from the sludgy rain that show no signs of stopping. Wiping the gray film from his brow the knight turned to his companions to offer his confusion.

"Empty building in the middle of the woods?" he put up his hands. "At least it's dry in here."

"Yeah. That was all pretty freaky." Julia smirked almost like she was having fun.

"Freaky? That's what you call that?" Chuck said in disgust. "We almost died."

"Well when you put it like that it sounds so...mean."

"We have to keep looking." Victor said. "He's got to be around here somewhere."

"Doesn't seem like there's anything around but sticks and mud." the pilgrim replied.

"No...he's near, I can feel it. I just don't know how near near is." the knight tried to explain.

"Right. That makes sense." Chuck said with unhelpful sarcasm.

"Don't get tetchy. Let's go back out and check."

Heading into the muddy rain they moved single file away from the building but found nothing except more trees. Making a detour just to be sure Victor followed his senses but wound his way back to the empty structure anyway. Going inside again the knight simply could not understand it.

"There has to be something here." he thought out loud. "It's just too strong."

"Maybe we can't see it?" the killer offered.

"It's all around us at this spot but not out there. Almost like we're-"

Victor interrupted himself as a possibility dawned on him. "-standing on it."

Searching the floor for any kind of imperfection or crack he came up empty handed but sincerely doubted it was a fault in his perception. There was one way to be sure but they didn't have any more of Jennifer Carroll's ashes to check. They did, on the other hand, have the next best thing.

"Lord Nothing, seek out this ruse." he looked up at the ceiling.

"Lovely weather we're having." the shade said directly behind them and they turned in unison to see the gray speckled Fater in high spirits. From their lights the spike harness he wore cast a menacing shadow on the blank wall behind him not unlike an angel figure with bone wings. "I may have to do this sometime in my realm."

"The hell have you been!?" Julia snarled. "We were getting mauled out there!"

"A cycloptic serpent sang to me." he said cheerfully. "It was quite wrathful for the taking of its eye."

Victor and Chuck turned to look at the pilgrim who cleared her throat. "Ahem. Well, do what you're here to do."

Breaking past them the shade studied the room like he had never seen one before. Craning his head all around he fretted over invisible details. "Clever Order Master." Nothing mumbled to himself. "Each wall reflecting the presence of the other. No way to find such a place without physically encountering it."

"Is it going to be a problem?" Victor asked but the ghost waved him off.

"Can you not see?" he gestured grandly. "Such limited creatures you are." Heading to one of the corners of the room he knelt down and dropped a fist into the ground. The "concrete" splintered from the blow and the rune failed as the entrance materialized into view. A wooden door had been built into the floor but with the rune in place there was no way to tell.

Rising the Fater motioned dramatically at the darkened path. "Let the games begin. _Venimus ergo ad clausulam_."

"I hate this guy." Julia muttered under her breath but from outside the creature cried out again. It seemed much closer than before and the three of them shared a look before hurrying to the relative safety underground.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Below

Chuck went first into the hole and his light showed a grimy set of steps heading down into the earth. He'd been forced to abandon both the shotgun and rifle he was carrying in his swim to safety but still at least had the grenades on his chest for heavy ordinance. Down to the two handguns he had strapped to himself for firearms he kept one pointed at the floor as they moved forward and prayed it would still fire after being dunked. Carefully and with as much stealth as possible he crept to the next floor. It was a large, open room, larger than the one above but just as empty.

Waiting for the lights of his companions to join him at the bottom of the flight there didn't seem to be anything in the room except another set of steps on the opposite side of the room leading downward. It was almost too easy and Chuck didn't like it. He was also a little concerned that neither of his friends brought long range weaponry but he supposed they would have been lost in the storm too. He would have to hope that the Dark Man would make up the difference.

"Empty?" Julia asked behind him.

"Not for long. Keep going." Victor suggested. They waited for Chuck to move first as apparently the guy with the gun was doing the leading down here. At least he had kevlar.

Heading down the next flight of stairs he could see the soft glow of lamps coming from the bottom and motioned behind him to kill their lights. Slinking down to the room as a group this floor was identical to the one above except this had a single light in the center. Sitting at a table for two by herself was a disheveled blonde girl Chuck had seen before but could not recall from where. In front of her was a large caliber revolver and she was staring ahead as if they weren't there.

"Where do I know her from?" Chuck whispered.

"That's the crazy bitch from the hotel." Julia reminded him.

"Crap, you're right. What is she doing here?"

"Beats me."

"Use caution." Victor urged. "Something is amiss here."

They moved slowly forward and Chuck kept his pistol pointed away but ready. They came within fifteen feet of her and still the blonde didn't so much as look their way. The killer turned back to Julia and motioned with his head towards the unknown female but the pilgrim made a confused face. Chuck mouthed the word 'girl' overly exaggerated to her and Julia's eyes narrowed at him.

"Why do I have to do it!?" she whispered angrily.

"You're a chick!" Chuck whispered back.

"How does that count!? Like we have some kind of special bond because we both have girl parts!?"

The killer looked up in thought and jiggled his head a little as he determined that this wasn't terrible logic. Silently fuming Julia turned to Victor for support who shrugged in grudging agreement. "Bag of dicks..." she muttered before venturing forward out of their pack.

"Uh, hi, remember us?" she said to the girl.

"Don't come any closer." the blonde warned.

"Hey, we don't want to hurt you." Julia put up her hands but the girl didn't so much as flick her eyes towards them.

"This is between me and him. Murphy." the girl asserted defiantly.

"Well-" Julia started but the girl went for the gun and Chuck whipped his pistol up to point at her. Instead of aiming it at them the blonde put it to her own head and pulled the trigger. Chuck squawked involuntarily as the gun clicked on an empty trigger.

"Holy shit!" Julia blurted and backed up a little. Chuck didn't quite know what to do since it didn't make sense to point a gun at someone who was playing Russian roulette with themselves.

"Hey! Calm down!"

"Get any closer and I stand up." the girl spat.

"Uh..."

"You people already took the gun I had. Now I'm just down to one bullet."

"Well actually, we need that and we have it-"

"Shut up!" she snapped. "If I stand up the bomb under the table goes off. So don't even think of trying to stop us."

"Wha-what!?" the pilgrim balked and the three of them bent down almost simultaneously to see what looked like a bundle of dynamite taped to the underside of the table.

"Duck!?"

"Fuuuuuu-"

"Aaaaagh!" they reacted.

"You can't save him. We'll finish this." the deranged girl promised.

"Uh...okay...you know there's no one in front of you right?" Julia asked as she backed away from the table.

"Very funny. I'm looking right at the bastard who stole everything. Don't try to trick me." she said sarcastically.

"Um, all in favor of getting the hell out of here?" Chuck asked his friends.

"Seconded." Julia held up a finger. The three of them gave the table a wide berth and practically ran to the next flight of stairs. Chuck glanced back once at the unstable female still focused on whatever imaginary person was in front of her but at the moment they were in no position to help. Saying a mental apology he hurried away from the explosive and down to the next floor.

They were falling over each other to get down the steps and burst onto the landing in a tactically unsound way. It didn't matter though as they stopped short from the macabre scene before them. The room had been some kind of operations center but it was a graveyard at the moment. The decomposing bodies of many mercenaries and a number of robed cultists were strewn about in eternal repose. At first Chuck assumed the Dark Man had taken care of it but when he examined them more closely they were missing the tell tale violence and inhuman force that marked Nothing's attacks. It would appear that many of them died from bullet wounds.

"Well damn." Julia said out loud.

"Something went wrong here." Victor added. "The soldiers turned on their employers."

"And themselves?" Chuck asked as he knelt down to one of the mercenaries' rifles. Holstering his pistol he picked up the black assault gun and started rummaging for more clips. As he searched among the dead he found few that had not met their end by bullets. The ones who hadn't bore horrific burns or giant holes certainly not made by any gun.

"Either bullets or...fire?" he spoke up as he stuffed another clip into his pocket.

"One of the Order's standard magical attacks." Victor explained. "Look at this."

They turned to the next stairwell which had a dead cultist on it. It was covered with thick metal doors and chained shut from their side. From the looks of it the cultist had died securing the chains for whatever reason.

"What do you think this is all about?" Julia asked him.

"No clue. We're going to have to get past these either way."

"Is that a good idea?" Chuck interjected.

"There's a crazy woman with a giant bomb a floor up. Do you want to get two floors away or what?" she asked.

Shutting himself up Chuck started helping Victor untangle the mass of metal keeping the doors together. When the the chains were off it took both men to lift the extraordinarily heavy door up and drop it to the side with a loud bang that echoed in the enclosed space. The killer winced at the noise but it couldn't be helped. Quickly retrieving his new rifle he again took the lead and went down another level in the surprisingly deep structure.

When the next floor came into view he stopped in his as soon as he reached the bottom. Gathered behind a barricade of flipped over tables and chairs was a group of the mercs. They ducked down out of sight when he saw them and with the rest of the room being a scattered mess of random furniture Chuck slid behind a washer dryer combo he wasn't sure would make for useful cover.

"Hold your fire!" a voice came from the other side of the room. With the other two staying back on the stairwell the killer had to hold the room down and risked putting his gun up just over the edge of the appliance. The men were holed up well but their fortifications looked almost as flimsy as his own.

"I'm coming out!" the same man said and out from behind the barricade. Older with a worn face and gray hair he was mean looking but had his hands up. Chuck could drop him right then and there but it was hard to justify shooting an unarmed person.

"What do you want?" he asked the merc.

"Just to talk. You're Chuck right?" the man said and only then did the son of Silent Hill recognize his voice. It was Hulme, the mercenary commander who he'd only talked to with a black mask over his face.

"You!" he hissed. "Your men tortured me!"

"I know. There wasn't much I could do to stop them at that point." Hulme said sadly. "They were scared, angry, losing hope. And you killed them all anyway."

"You would have done the same thing!" Victor called down from the steps.

"I would have. And I'd do it again to get my men out." Hulme admitted to the absent knight. "But we're all that's left."

"What happened?"

"Your old friends had something of an insurrection and my people got dragged into the middle of it. We had orders to shoot dissenters but they were offering a way out of town and triple what we were being paid. Some were against it, some for it, there was shouting and then someone fired a round off. All hell broke loose. They backed us up down here and locked the door. That lying bastard Stone put up some magic wall down below. We've been stuck here for two days with no food or water. I guess they were going to let us starve to death." the commander spoke rapidly.

"All right...what now then?" the killer asked.

"We just want to go home." Hulme said tiredly. "No more of this. We won't fight you."

"I should shoot you where you stand." Chuck threatened.

"If you will agree to let the rest of my men go, then do it. I will pay that price." the mercenary decreed.

"Let them go, Chuck." Julia called down. "There's been enough revenge already."

It was hard to argue with that. Even though he was still literally sore from what the mercenaries had done to him they had been paid back a hundred times over in terms of vengeance. The Dark Man and Victor had done their bloody work well and dozens of the mercs had died in the hospital where they had been kept prisoner. Chuck sighed and stood up as a relieved Hulme signaled to his men. His friends came down as the broken, fatigued group of mercenaries filed out past them out of the room. There were only seven left including Hulme and Chuck shuddered to think of how many had met their end here.

The last to go was the commander and his weary features spoke of the toll his stay had taken on him. "I warned you, Commander." Victor sneered. "Your actions have had the consequences foretold."

"Coming here was the biggest mistake of my life." The commander said in a state of exhaustion. "All I wanted was to get my people out. Now most of them will never leave. This is something I will have to live with...if I live at all."

"And I'd kill you if you were worth it." the knight simmered with uncharacteristic vehemence. "But even if the misty land doesn't take care of you, I want you to live with your decisions. I want them to haunt you until your last breath. Begone from here, before I change my mind."

The knight waved his hand contemptuously and the old soldier lowered his head as he dragged his feet away from them. When the trio was alone again Julia said, "Well that was a little harsh."

"Your clemency was hard enough to swallow. Don't expect me to be polite as well." Victor said irritably.

"Let it go, Vic." the killer said. "They beat my ass with bats and I agree with Julia. There's been enough."

Sullen but quiet the knight did not retort and they resumed forward progress. Picking their way past the mercenaries' make shift camp they came to the next flight hidden among their fortifications. Heading down to a well lit floor that was half finished the rest was a large cave opening still rough hewn from whatever cataclysm formed it. A massive, circular stone door had been set over an opening leading onward and blocked their entrance. The Order's signature symbol, that strange, circle within circle mark with unintelligible lettering had been carved into the entirety of the door. Some fifteen feet across and just as many high it must have weighed many tons. Standing in front of it contemplating the intricate design was the Dark Man with his bone spikes criss-crossing his back.

"What is it among men that drives them to attempt to seal their place in history?" he asked the door. "It so often forgets them despite their best efforts."

"We might ask that of you, Daniel Kewahqu. You're the one who took it upon yourself to alter the misty land forever." the knight said.

"Come now, Victor Rosencrantz." The shade purred. "Do you truly believe in the innocence of a place so wrapped around the Order's finger that the girl's wrath swallowed it whole?"

"And what about the people who had nothing to do with them? People like us who just happened to be somewhere else when you struck?"

"The ones living on land stolen hundreds of years ago?" The shade shrugged. "If they were pure of heart I doubt much changed at all."

"You unleashed something you can't control." Julia accused.

"You, dear pilgrim, say this as if I was meant to." the shade answered softly. "The misty land is greater than you or I. Its judgment is its own...things are as they should be. I am merely an extension of its will. And there remains one last threat to it we must purge."

Unstrapping his harness the ghost approached Victor with it held out in his hands. "Behold! The spears of Gloom, Void, Darkness, Despair, Temptation, Source, Watchfulness and Chaos." he rattled off. As the knight pulled the harness on over his kevlar Chuck inspected the strange lettering all over them. One read "HASTA SANCTAE MATRIS" and "VIGILANTIA" and these words were carved down the every inch of the deadly spike. The other were similarly decorated and gave the already intimidating weapons another irrational wrinkle.

"The conjurer will have an item on him tying him to this world." Nothing instructed. "I will retrieve it and together with these righteous spears, you will join it to his true flesh."

"What do you mean, true flesh? How will we know what it is?" Julia balked as the shade exerted himself against the door.

"You will know." The Dark Man grunted as he began to roll the massive slab to the side. He rotated it just enough to crack it for them to get through and the door came back to rest. "I cannot follow. When the time of reckoning is upon us, I will join thee again."

Victor went in first and Julia behind him. Chuck took a deep breath as he looked over at the impassive Dark Man who only nodded back. Going in last the killer entered a room bathed in the light of a thousand candles.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Skipping Stones

Inside the room expanded into a high cave that was much larger than the man made chambers above. Running some hundred feet to where it bottle necked out of view it contained a mess of digging equipment, a sprawling drug lab and had giant crates filling half the room like an orderly forest. Candles had been placed seemingly over every inch of the space and though it had scant electric lighting much of the room was illuminated by the soft orange glow of hundreds of tiny flames. They lined the uneven cave walls and were almost pathologically placed on every possible flat object. Of the trio only Victor partially understood their ritual significance; they were used to 'dispel evil' though it was never clear what exactly that meant. With the knight in the lead Chuck lurked in the rear and Julia followed close behind Victor. Despite having only her smooth gloves as weapons she wasn't afraid, in fact, she had never felt so confident going into a fight.

Waiting for them a couple dozen feet into the flickering, shadow laden chamber milled a pack of Order disciples. The only loyalists to survive the insanity upstairs they nervously watched the heathens approach. It wasn't until the heretics came into speaking distance did the Order Master reveal himself. Coming out from behind the robed cultists the elder Stone was fully armored in Victor's green suit of unholy material, much to the shock of the combatants across from him. Though it did not fit well on his shorter, bony frame and the shield was a tad too large Stone was smug at the reaction he received.

"I did not think you would survive the trip here." he called out to his former pupil. "How did you find us?"

"There is nowhere you can run we cannot find." Victor shot back. "I should have known you would be hiding underground. It suits you."

"So mighty in collusion with the Enemy." the old priest shook his head. "How far you have fallen. Do you so enjoy being the lapdog of an atrocity?"

"No more than you. Though it seems you are worse for the wear than I, old teacher. Your vaunted Order and hirelings, massacred by the score. Where did that fit in with your grand designs?" Victor taunted.

"I admit, you have proven more troublesome than I would have liked."

"You always said I was your best student."

"And you should have died at the hands of the blasphemous Fater, but you were full of poison and false platitudes." Stone said with disdain.

"A shame your Order has no talent for recruiting true believers." the knight seethed.

"Our greatest mistake." the Order Master sighed. His voice was tired and droning like a librarian but had an undercurrent of fervor that was unsettling as it was subtle. "The Gillispie girl was a close second. I knew she would be the ruin of us but no one could have predicted what your erstwhile master was planning. Thankfully all is not lost. We stand now on the precipice of glory. You and the puppet king pulling on your strings will not be remembered in the next stage of paradise."

"No one tells us what to do." Julia asserted. "We're here to stop you on our own free will."

"Are you?" Stone said with amusement. "You don't even know why you were called here. Why your false idol continues to string you along like children listening to a fable."

"We owe him." Chuck said.

"Which is exactly what he orchestrated." the priest jeered. "You fools give him exactly what he needs to survive."

Unsure of themselves none in the trio knew what he was talking about. Seeing their confusion he added in disgust, "You don't even know, do you? Incredible...it is your idiotic belief in his power that gives him strength. Your faith in his existence, your utter conviction that he is invincible, is what sustains him in this world."

"No, that can't be right..." Chuck refused to accept.

"Did you think he cares for your lives?" Stone relished in their doubt. "Once all of his followers are dead he will be pathetically easy to kill in this sphere. Perhaps in his own dream he is truly immortal but here, alone, he is little more than a fleet footed ghost."

The three of them struggled to process this new information but it made unusual sense to Julia. In Nowhere every man, woman and creature knew his many names, knew he was at the center of their world and almost universally strove to please him. She assumed it was the monstrous energy he absorbed in the Lightening that recharged his diminished power but what if it was also the collective belief of Nowhere that fueled his might?

"Then it is a self sustaining power." she realized. "If he shows us his strength, the more real it is for us, and the stronger he gets."

"And here you are. Used like dupes."

"No...that's not true." Victor spoke up. "Maybe he used us, but he always led us to the truth about ourselves. I understand now why he would help others. It's not himself he wanted us to believe in...it was Silent Hill. And he would die, again, for it and the memory of Jennifer Carroll. We should be ashamed that we cannot live up to his passion, Marcus."

"Such a waste." Stone lamented. "There is much about the nature of your home that comes easily to you where others would struggle. You could have surpassed Kewahqu at my side, Victor. Been the herald of a new world. Now you will die in darkness and shame as I hand you to the conjurer. Come then, old pupil, I have one last lesson for you: the power of true faith always defeats the impure."

"And I have a lesson for you, Marcus. It involves showing you pieces of yourself before you expire." the knight promised.

Stone shoved a large pistol towards them but Chuck was ready and had his rifle to his shoulder. Firing a short burst at the older man the Order Master lifted Victor's shield and the bullets bounced harmlessly off it. Ricocheting back at them in random directions Chuck's allies took cover from the unpredictable slugs.

"Hey!" Julia said angrily as Stone cackled with laughter.

"Whoops." Chuck said. "Was worth a try."

The cultists scattered and the trio of invaders took up the best positions they could as Stone returned fire with his hand cannon. "Spread out!" Victor yelled. Chuck went left towards the large crates while the silvery fisted pilgrim went forward into the drug processing equipment and random junk. Holding his position Victor slid down behind pile of concrete blocks as Stone continued to throw large caliber rounds in his direction. With the suit he was practically impervious to long range attacks and eventually someone was going to have to get in close to stop him. Getting past the barrage of bullets without taking a couple to the chest would be a lot easier said than done even against an aged opponent.

Sliding a couple of the bone spikes from his harness Victor did his best to listen for the click of an empty magazine. When his gun ran out of shots Stone reloaded quite unhurriedly and Victor popped up to throw the spikes at the still relatively distant mark. Simply raising the shield the priest easily blocked the only spike that was on target and he resumed reloading. Victor cursed under his breath and pulled a couple more of the weapons from his back.

Off to Stone's right the remaining adepts looked for a way to hit the three heretics from behind as they crawled forward cautiously. Some thirty feet to the knight's left Chuck peeked around the corner of a giant crate to try to locate something to shoot. When he saw the grayish robes of the Order's faithful come into view among the drug lab he took a short breath and leaned out to pop a quick barrage off at the man. The chamber echoed from the semi-automatic chatter and the bullets slammed into a bluish oval of light in front of the cultist instead of a tearing into his body.

"Shit!" the killer cursed and ducked back behind the gigantic crate. Moments later a line of pure flame smashed the front his cover and shook him from his position.

"Fuck! Little help!" Chuck called out to Victor who was preoccupied himself. Stone was steadily approaching and if he didn't move shortly there was a good chance the Order Master would be able to flank him. A large gap in between where Victor was hiding and the cluster of crates Chuck was moving around in kept him from a slightly safer hiding spot. The knight was unsure of just how good Stone was with his pistol and the gap was considerable. Risking a peek out from behind cover the armored priest was waiting and Victor jerked back before a bullet skipped off the floor near his head.

"Pinned down!" he called back.

"This is going well..." Chuck muttered and another spell hit the crate he was cowering behind. It struck the top of the box with the force of a car crash and simply exploded it into a shower of glass, wood splinters and the remnants of candles. Bits and pieces of vials rained down on the killer and cut dozens of tiny gashes on his scalp.

"Chuck!" Victor shouted but he could barely move without Stone shooting at him. It was going to come down to who was faster than who when the Order Master moved into striking range but the knight was unsure he could overcome even an older man before he was shot point blank. He would have to hope the others would pressure Stone from another direction before that happened. "Their shields don't go all the way around! Hit them from the side!" he advised his allies the best he could.

The words were not lost on Julia who had stuffed herself under a table half her height in between the killer and the advancing adepts. They were focused on the gun toting heretic and kept their eyes open but she was at knee level, partially hidden by the somewhat darkened room and barely breathing to keep as quiet as possible. The one in the lead was holding his hand out in front of him and likely the source of the blue shield while the others were preparing pieces of paper to throw at Chuck just behind. At some point they were going to push far enough forward to hit both of the men with their magical attacks and she had to act before it happened but not soon enough that they would all turn on her to make it four on one.

Huddled under the table she decided that she was going to have to hit the shield man first and get out of the way before they could counter. Doing everything short of closing her eyes as they passed near the pilgrim dared not even breath as the cultists moved slowly through the equipment. Her heart thudded in her chest so loudly that she was afraid someone might hear it and she hoped the killer would be ready when she created a momentary disruption.

A robed man crept past her tightly bunched body so close she could have reached out to trip him and she silently pleaded to remain hidden just another couple seconds. The pilgrim almost mewed in relief as he passed her by and she waited until they were a few feet away before carefully uncoiling herself. Edging out from under the table her bare feet made little sound on the cold cave floor as the pack of them were spread out before her. Knuckles white in her gloves she took a couple of light steps before surging forward.

"Shoot!" she screamed as she bowled past two of the paper holding cultists. Her right fist was cocked back when the startled adepts were knocked aside and the one in front was still turning his head towards her when she laid a ferocious blow on his temple. She felt bone split as he toppled down and Julia's momentum carried her in a tumble with him onto the floor.

Across from them the killer, shaken and with blood trickling down his face from the supernatural assault, had been waiting for some kind of opening when he head Julia's call. Sliding out he saw her crash into one of the cultists with three very confused ones still standing and momentarily out in the open. He took the chance to shoot at the closest one and this time he saw red holes open up the man's robes when his rifle barked. Swinging the barrel a little to the right he fired again but the last two ducked down out of sight before he scored more hits.

Coming out fully from behind the crates he saw Julia scrambling to put distance between herself and their enemies. One of them rose up just enough to throw a paper at the pilgrim a half second before Chuck could make his head detonate with a single bullet. Brain material flew out in an explosion of gore but the paper had already taken shape as a thick rope of flame that struck the pilgrim on her back. She cried out in pain as it fully engulfed her and the killer froze for in horror for the briefest of moments. It was enough time for the last cultist to let a paper fly and too late the he tried to dodge whatever was about to come his way. Chuck saw a flash of blue before a wrecking ball hit him and the lights went out.

Victor saw Chuck's form come flying back into his vision from whatever chaos was occurring out of sight. Smashing into a crate so hard his body became lodged in it and remained almost completely upright despite the fact the he was probably unconscious. An orange shower of candles toppled from above onto the floor in front of the killer and Victor saw no signs of life from his friend. He could not see Julia either and had heard her cry out but the knight could not move from where he was. Stone's laughter and pistol were driving him crazy and the knight put down the ineffective spikes to draw his wavy blade in anger.

"Your friends have fallen." Stone mocked. The old man was close but not close enough to rush. He would likely get only one strike, one moment to kill the Order Master and he had to make it count.

"Something have your tongue, boy?" the priest asked. "Surely you -grah!"

Victor heard scuffling and risked a peek to see Stone some ten feet away wrestling with Julia over control of his gun. She tried to wrench it from his hand but was struck heavily by the green shield and staggered back.

"Die!" the cultist cried and shot her three times in the chest until his gun clicked empty from his repeated trigger pulls. Victor watched in mortified shock as the women he loved took the projectiles directly to the heart but somehow was still on her feet as she stumbled back.

Dropping the gun Stone reached into the custom sheet holder on the armor's right leg and pulled a paper free. He threw it at the pilgrim and it turned to a three foot thick torrent of pure electricity that fried her where she stood. The knight almost collapsed at the sight as his world came crashing down but in that moment something happened that he knew was impossible but happened anyway. Julia charged through the eruption of smoke and ionized air to lunge with her fist, connecting with Stone's unprotected jaw. His head snapped back and it was his turn to wobble as she followed it up with a brutal left hook to the armored side of his face that still dropped the priest to the ground.

Victor's mouth was hanging open as Julia pounced on the Order Master and ripped the shield from his arm. Proceeding to beat him senseless with her blood covered gloves she did not have to strike many times to put him out. The knight's paralyzed body refused to respond and he felt like throwing up before he forced it to move where she panted above an unconscious Stone. She looked up at the knight with a savage fire in her eyes as her chest heaved in exertion. "Mother fucker! Shot me!" she huffed. "Go check on Chuck. I got this guy."

The knight could only stare dumbly as she reached into the priest's pocket to pull out his Oblivion sheets and scattered them into the air in a flurry of paper. In awe Victor willed his unresponsive legs to walk as he sheathed his sword and hesitantly left her there. Moving past the clutter of the cave he came to where the pack of adepts had been butchered. Looking down at their wounds he saw that two had been taken out by Chuck's rifle. Another had the side of his head caved in from what seemed like a sledgehammer blow. Stepping over the bodies the last one's face was an unrecognizable mush of bone and pulverized tissue.

Leaving the grotesque carnage he found the killer waking up but still embedded in the crate. Putting his shoulder under Chuck's arm he pulled him free of the wreckage and helped him to the ground. Kneeling alongside him as Chuck's eyes fluttered Victor did not like the way the killer was responding.

"You all right?" he asked.

"What...happened." Chuck croaked.

"Looks like you got hit with a brute force spell. Sent you about seven feet into a crate."

"Julia...?"

"Fine. More than fine." he nodded.

"Cool...back kinda hurts...front kinda hurts too...can I lay here for a second?"

The knight smiled tightly and patted him on the shoulder. Leaving him be Victor went back to Julia and the woman had the large pistol pointed at the now helmetless Order Master. Standing watch over Stone as he regained consciousness she looked relatively unconcerned about what just happened.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Am I okay!?" he exclaimed. "What the hell was that all about!?"

"We kicked ass?"

"How are you still alive!?"

"Whoa, calm down there buddy. There's this -" she said and used one hand to reach under her kevlar. The bullet holes over her heart had clearly ripped into the material but from behind the protective vest she yanked out Nothing's journal.

"The fuck..." Victor gaped.

"It's indestructible right? Couldn't get the damn thing to stay on the outside but it strapped under the vest nicely. Still hurt like hell though."

"You gave me a goddamn heart attack!" Victor scowled. "What about the spell? Did the book absorb that too?"

"Eh...I'll explain in a minute. For right now, get your armor back from this dickhead."

Perturbed but unable to argue with her practicality he started prying his armor from the dizzy priest. Stone offered little resistance as Victor expertly unbuckled and yanked pieces off. The knight could not help but notice that the large bruises forming on Stone's face had blood smeared on them already and it didn't look like all of it was his. Getting a bracer off he snuck a glance to the side at Julia's gloves to see them covered in sticky redness and flecks of flesh. She had apparently been the one to kill the other two adepts with almost her bare hands. She was becoming a frightening combatant the longer they stayed here.

Stripping everything else except the breastplate he unbuckled the front of it and lifted the second to last piece off. Rolling the Order Master over he pulled off the back plate and added it to the pile at the side. Victor stopped to take a breather as the old man recovered and rolled painfully to his side. Sitting up after a couple minutes to focus on Julia the woman calmly returned his cold gaze.

"So...you had more of the ashes after all." he wheezed.

Victor looked over at her but the pilgrim didn't bat an eye. "What are we going to do with him?"

"He dies." Victor decreed. "Too much evil has gone on because of this man. The Order falls with him."

"You think we will cease to be if you kill me?" Stone asked incredulously. "We are legion. Blasphemers," he paused to spit out blood, "hhhgck...will never stop us."

"Stopped ya pretty hard today, pal."

"You sucker punched an old man, you craven cow." Stone sneered."Judgment will be passed on you in due time."

"Funny how you keep saying that but I'm the one holding the gun."

"You think I fear you? You think I fear death? I am but a man. The gods are watching and they will punish you when your time comes." Stone promised.

"Holy hell, no wonder people are lining up to shoot you. Bet you're a hoot at parties." Julia shook her head.

"Enough." Victor cut in. Drawing his sword he ordered, "On your feet, Marcus Stone. I will permit you one final prayer. To the door."

Weary the Order Master climbed upright and lurched forward towards the entrance. Julia watched Victor as they went back to the way they came and sighed. It was necessary but she wished they didn't have to be the ones to do it.

The two men walked to the opening and the massive circular door with the Order's symbol carved into the inner side as well. The cultist stopped in his tracks fifteen feet shy of the crack they had used to enter the room.

"Into the hall." Victor commanded.

"I will go no further." the old man said resolutely. "I know who lurks outside these candles."

"Very well." Victor shrugged. "Kneel, Disciple of the Sun God, and say your goodbyes."

Falling to his knees Stone clasped his hands in front of himself and closed his eyes. "Holy Mother, redeemer of all our sins..."

The wait was almost unbearable but Victor kept his blade at the ready until the priest was done. When the last syllable left his lips the knight skewered Stone through the back but took care to avoid his heart. Drawing the extremely sharp blade back out Stone wavered on his knees and Victor relished in delivering another strike to the other side. Toppling over as blood spurted from his wounds he writhed in muffled agony but it was not over. Pinning his shoulder down the cruel knight repeatedly stabbed the old man in the stomach a few more times as he coughed on his own blood.

Watching the pained, aghast expression on his face until he passed Victor shouldn't have enjoyed this so much but he did. Stone would have taken his very soul if given the chance and this was nothing short of justice. Flicking the blood from his sword Victor sheathed it and turned back to join his friends. There was only one more enemy left when he too was dead at their feet this war would be over. Victor took a quick moment to look up and pray only for success.

* * *

Julia was waiting with Chuck when Victor came back to them. His normally stoic features were creased with consternation and she thought that he was incredibly heroic to take on the extremely unpleasant task of executing a man he once knew. The killer, too, wasn't looking so great and appeared to be a little dazed still but was at least on his feet. He had take a thumping and she didn't have the heart to tell him he looked like hell.

Her man picked up the two spikes that were on the ground for some reason instead of in his harness and he threw them down to begin dressing himself in the green suit. Julia idly pondered the ethics of wearing the suit knowing where it came from and how it was given strength but at the moment they would need all the advantages they could get.

"Did you keep some of the ashes for yourself without telling me?" Victor asked abruptly.

The pilgrim had been lit on fire by one of the adepts and had felt the heat of the attack. She initially thought she was too badly burned to even feel her wounds when she got up and rolled on the last cultist. It wasn't until she turned the man's face into red putty that she realized not only was she not hurt but was hitting entirely too hard. Only then did the true extent of her deal with the devil dawn on her. Kewahqu's blood was running through her veins in a very literal sense and had granted a portion of his power. Thanks to Carroll's ashes it nullified the magic attacks against her and she couldn't believe that she failed to notice her strength had greatly increased as well. The skulls of her adversaries, both human and otherwise, had not in fact become softer or more fragile at all. She had ignored the signs that something was much different about herself since making the pact with the Spirit of the Night Air, perhaps subconsciously.

"I...no. I made a deal with Nothing." she admitted. No use lying about it, he would find out eventually.

"What kind of deal?"

"I'll explain when this is all over, Vic. It's something I had to do for my parents." she sighed.

"But you won't tell me now?" he asked suspiciously.

"Please just trust me. It will make sense later."

Disgruntled he returned to his work. "I trust you, Jewel. We're almost done here. There's just one more left but he's going to be the hardest one yet."

She nodded and looked over to Chuck who seemed oblivious to the conversation. "You holding up over there, guy?"

"I'll make it." Chuck said grimly. "No way am I sitting this one out."

Victor finished buckling his suit on and pulled Nothing's harness on to add to his intimidating appearance. Picking up the helmet he fit it snugly on his head and slid his arm into the wide shield to complete the outfit. "Lookin' good." she commented.

"I admit, it's nice to have back, even if it sickens me to think of where it came from." he replied.

"Let's do this before I fall over." Chuck suggested.

"Hey, are you sure you're fine?" Julia touched his shoulder but he only raised his rifle in the air.

"We're in this together." the killer stated. "You're going to need me...and I have a promise to keep."

"I am honored to be your friend, Charles Taylor." Victor declared.

"Me too, Chuck. Your parents, either set of them, would be very proud of you."

He showed a rare smile and said, "Come on, let's kick this guy's ass."

Walking to the other end of the chamber they came to an ancient, molding door set awkwardly into the misshapen cave mouth. Victor went first and when he creaked the old wood open stale air came out like the inside of a sarcophagus. Lingering to look at them the knight did not have to remind everyone what was at stake. Everything they had fought and barely survived had led to this point. There was no turning back.

They entered the next chamber as the glow of the candles faded into a murky chamber much larger than the one they were just in. Upon a thick, square column some twenty feet high there was a man sitting cross legged. A circle of light, the only luminescence in the room, poured down on him from far above them. Head down, hair in his eyes and shoulders hunched over the man's face was shrouded in shadow. Just behind the pillar and barely visible with the scant light was a gigantic wall carving of some exotic goddess. It appeared that the wall had been built in the middle of the chamber with nothing connected to it; though it was some hundred feet across it was still dwarfed by the rest of the cave and stood by itself.

Gingerly approaching the man on the pillar he didn't seem to notice the three of them. Outfitted in a ripped, filthy green vest and soiled, frayed jeans he looked more like a hobo than a threat. They had edged to a comfortable thirty feet or so from the column when the door slammed shut behind them. Julia's head swiveled around and could barely see the exit's outline but clearly heard it lock itself. Slowly turning to the column the man on it finally lifted his head to regard them.

He was in his mid thirties, had medium length, dirty blonde hair and had a face with worry lines chiseled into it. The man looked sad beyond all measuring as if he'd been carrying the weight of the world on his back for decades. Julia pitied this person almost immediately despite the fact that they were here to kill him. The last time she saw that kind of depression was when Victor told her the story of his mother's death and only for brief flashes. This guy looked like he had been in that state around the clock while working in a hospital for terminally ill puppies.

"Hello." he said with a hollow, almost robotic tone.

"Hi." Victor answered.

"I knew you'd come." the man said without a glimmer of liveliness. "I've been waiting. Waiting for what seems like forev- huh?" he cut himself off as he turned his head to the side. Pausing for a few seconds he turned back to them and added, "Yes dear, sorry. _We've _both been waiting here for you."

"Oh good, he's batshit crazy." Chuck muttered.

"What a nice change of pace." Julia chimed in.

"Who are you?" Victor called.

"Who am I..." the man trailed off like he was just asked a difficult philosophical question. "I did have a name once...can't seem to remem- huh? Ah...yes dear, thank you. I was...James. James Sunderland. Nice to meet you."


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Meet James

"You know who we are then." Victor said to the sad man.

"Of course." Sunderland nodded. "You're it. The final Sacraments. The Mother Reborn, Julia Stormson." he pointed at her. "And Victor Rosencrantz, the Receiver of Wisdom. 20 and 21. At last, they will be complete. At last, you will wake up." he said to the empty space on his right.

"Who are you talking to...?"

"My wife...Mary. She was sick and...I brought her here to get better."

"Yeah? How's that workin' out for ya pal?"

"She's dead. Always was. But we're almost there..." the blonde man breathed. "She looked so peaceful..."

"Is that why you're doing this? For your wife?" Victor demanded.

"The Old Gods have not forsaken this place." he explained absently. "Those who honor them are given power...power to do anything..."

"The Power of Heaven." Julia uttered.

"James, we have to stop you. There's a lot more at stake than your wife." Victor told him.

"I know. I don't care." Sunderland said and angled his face to the light coming from above him. "Yes dear, I'll tell them. She says I'm too close now. Too close to stop. Come forth, Mother Reborn. With your blood I will be free."

"Come and get it, Jack." Julia put her fists up.

"Careful." Victor muttered. "We're in his dream now. There's no telling what he could do."

Standing up Sunderland raised his arms and simply disappeared. Reappearing at the bottom of the pillar with a gigantic, rusty knife just like Pyramid Head's he calmly stalked forward. Sweeping his free hand to the right Chuck flew away from Julia like he'd been hit with another spell. She could only gawk at his sudden exit before the green jacketed menace swept his hand left and Victor too was tossed aside like a doll. The pilgrim kept her gore covered gloves protecting her chin as Sunderland came for her, dragging the heavy weapon behind him. For some reason when he was almost in striking range she chose to smile in that moment that could be her last.

The ghost stopped in his tracks and even backed up a few steps. He started looking around for something she couldn't see just before the lone circle of light coming in darkened and the entire cave creaked under enormous pressure being exerted on it. "You...monster...you...demon." Sunderland breathed in astonishment. "You brought the darkness in with you."

A pair of foot steps came echoing from behind her and Sunderland backed up another few feet. Julia did not have to turn around to know who it was and she smirked at the sudden reversal of fortune.

"Fooooour-score-men-and-ten-thooousand-beasts." Nothing hummed to a tune. "Yooooou're-not-the-ones-to-chaaaaaallenge-me..."

"Fiend. You are not welcome here." Sunderland glowered and showed a granule of emotion, the most so far.

Coming around her to plant himself in between them the Fater traced a rune in the air with his fingers. It was an incredibly intricate and gracefully curving design formed as his digits left a red trail of glowing light in the air. Sunderland appeared in front of him in an instant and whipped the giant knife down at blinding speed to produce a shower of sparks but it bounced harmlessly off the sigil. Unfazed the Fater continued finishing the rune while the other shade repeatedly hit it with blows that would have cut a mountain in half.

When he was done Nothing took a step back and Sunderland darted from the glowing crest as it hovered in the air. The pressure in the room changed and Julia felt something shift but she could not identify it.

"What have you done..." Sunderland said with a thin layer of disbelief.

"There will be no outcome, save victory." Nothing declared. "You cannot run from me, James Sunderland."

"Nor you." the man in green said and turned to walk away. "Yes dear, I will show them."

Raising his hand in the air he snapped his fingers and the cave lit up like day time. The gloom of the cave, the pillar and carved wall had obscured an army waiting behind them. Rows upon rows of shiny, slick mannequins, faceless tar throwers, floating squares of flesh trapped in bed frames idling ten feet above the floor and towering battering rams stood still like statues. The cave held hundreds of them and went back farther than Julia could see.

From behind the wall carving something colossal began to move. Some twenty feet high and just as wide it was a rusty, cube shaped piece of metal that contained something hideous even by Silent Hill standards. Two oversized, vaguely humanoid figures fused together in a slimy mass of gray and white filled the cube as it moved along with a slug like foot. Onyx, oily tendrils extended from it by the dozens as thick as palm trees and they rustled anxiously as it crept along.

Julia did not mind cowering behind the Fater as Sunderland took his place in front of the pillar and rested his knife point on the cave floor at his feet. "We settle this then." he said with finality. "Do you truly think yourself a match for me now?"

"You want to play?" the Fater cocked his head to the side. "Very well."

Taking Julia by the hand he led her back to the entrance of the cave. The pilgrim was confused and for some reason did not think to resist as Nothing took hold of her shoulders and set her just a few feet from where they had come in.

"What are you doing?" Victor asked worriedly.

"Stand aside." Nothing warned. He leaned to Julia's ear entirely too close and whispered, "Don't be afraid, my dear."

She turned her head just in time to see a blur coming down as the Fater stabbed her with a wicked black knife that sank down to the hilt. The pilgrim's eyes popped open in surprise and white hot pain as he yanked the blade out. Gurgling, she fell to her knees as the wound seemed to be pulsing with a life of its own and after a half second blood exploded out of her back. Spraying in a far too large stream her life essence showered the back wall of the cave as Julia teetered on the edge of passing out from the intense agony. Straining to turn her head even a little she forced herself to look behind her.

Gallons of red blood mixed with what looked like tar were coming out of her back at fire hose pressure and some of it spattered on her face as she saw more than she could physically contain burning into the cave wall. Remaining halfway upright she looked around while her shoulder burned as if someone were rotating a red hot coal into it. So incredible was the pain that she was unable to scream and she glimpsed Victor's aghast face in her daze. Chuck's was borderline indifferent as the blood pumping out of her finally slowed to a halt. The pain gradually subsided and the pilgrim slumped down towards the cold floor.

She was caught before hitting the ground by Nothing who lifted her gently in his arms. Confused and traumatized she reached behind her to feel her the gash but there was no wound there. The fabric of her shirt had been ripped and the entire area was wet but her skin was smooth and intact. Bewildered she looked up at the hard faced Fater who had his eyes locked on Sunderland.

"What madness is this?" the blonde man said and Julia craned to see the cave wall over their benefactor's shoulder. It was still hissing and burning but she could not comprehend why. Looking back to Sunderland a puzzled look came over his face before it turned to horror. "Wait...no you can't! Impossible!"

"Stay very still." Nothing instructed her and the wall where her blood had touched faded away into a strangely out of place, black oval. A familiar cacophony came out of it that was soft at first but quickly grew into a mighty explosion of noise.

"_Julia Stormson. So glad to see you well._" came a voice in her head.

"Tower!?" she said aloud and then she realized what was going on. From the portal a roaring, thunderous pack of muscle cars with plows attached to the front came screaming out of the wall and swerved around where Nothing was holding her by mere inches. A horde of disparate foot soldiers Julia had seen fighting each other in Nowhere came pouring out en masse into the cave ready for war. Trojans, werewolves, samurai, marines and robots streamed in howling like Ragnarok as the mannequin army charged forward to meet them. The cars at the front plowed into the slimy masses with enough force to knock down thirty at a time and armored knights came out of them with chopping medieval weaponry as all hell broke loose in the cavern.

With seemingly the whole of Nowhere stampeding past them Nothing calmly set Julia down as their allies parted around the two of them the way a river parts around a jutting rock. The Fater pointed at Sunderland who was already hacking enemies to pieces with his rusty knife and yelled, "I will deal with that one! Survive until I take from him his link to this world!"

Brandishing a second of the black knives he had stabbed her with the Fater joined the stream of monsters headed towards Sunderland. Unable to see her comrades in the chaos Julia assumed the best and gleefully followed Nothing into the wildest battle of her life.

* * *

Chuck watched the events unfold before him in shock and only caught a glimpse of the black clad Fater surging forward into the absolute pandemonium occurring in the center of the chamber. He knew that he was not capable of wading in to help his comrades even if he wanted to. The killer had been far more seriously injured by the Order's adepts then he had been letting on. The kevlar had blunted some of the trauma but slivers of glass and metal had been deeply embedded in his torso. Blood had been running down his spine and pant legs the entire time since Victor pulled him from the crate. It took nearly everything he had to get back to his feet when Sunderland knocked him down and he wasn't sure how much longer he would last.

Breathing as steadily as he could he stumbled his way to the right along the cave wall. The columns of Nothing's people were going straight forward into the swarm of white bodies which were coming from behind both sides of the wall carving. Not sure if he could damage the gargantuan, lumbering box creature with mere bullets he opted to fire on the enemy's right wing. Easing himself slowly to one knee while monsters killed each other by the score mere dozens of feet away Chuck forced himself to breath as the pain lanced through his insides.

Taking aim with the rifle he started to empty his magazine into them just before they collided with the strange assortment of friends the Dark Man had called in. He could barely hear the sound of his own bullets but the jack hammer kickback from the shots rattled the glass in his body and clenched his teeth almost to the point of breaking. He would not go down without a fight, no way. The killer refused to die as long as he still had ammo and when the clip was out of fumbled for a new one. Some things were more important than living and he had one very special gun that his allies would need before the end. Only when he fired it he would allow himself to sleep.

* * *

Julia hit the wave of enemies fist first and dropped a mannequin where it stood. Her shoulder, though healed, pulsed and ached but she barely felt it as she threw punishing strike after strike. The waves of slimy, disfigured monsters crashed on the unfocused but savage Nowherites in total carnage and she was right in the thick of it. The pilgrim did not loose a single punch that failed to break bones or split skulls and she reveled in the joy of the slaughter. Perhaps she had been Nothing's unwitting pawn after all but at the moment she was having far too much fun to care. Tearing into the endless enemies in front of her she trampled over the bodies that fell below with her bare feet.

* * *

The knight had heard Julia's story of Nowhere but he was not prepared for the unbridled anarchy before him. The cave only served to amplify the bedlam as the two groups met each other like rivers colliding. If that wasn't astonishing enough seeing Julia rush into battle behind the Fater headlong disturbed him more than watching her tainted blood open a portal to another sphere. There would be some explaining later but there was no time for hesitation now.

Ahead Nothing was staring down the other shade and the immense, tentacled monstrosity was inching closer to the fray. Victor would have to put himself where he could do the most good and at the moment that meant keeping the Fater standing at all costs.

Pulling his sword free and bringing his shield up he rammed into the abominations Sunderland had summoned as hard as he could.

* * *

Their respective forces battled around them and the Fater almost skipped to where his true enemy was busy cutting everything that came near him in half. His movements were relatively slow and deliberate to Nothing's eyes but whatever was in the path of his terrible knife was rent to pieces. Snapping the neck of a pirate with one hand Sunderland tossed the body away as he regarded the other shade.

"And so here we are." Sunderland said and he was already covered in blood. "You did not learn your lesson the first time."

"Says the coward who struck me in the back." Nothing said flippantly. "You have yet to truly face my wrath instead of hiding in Stone's sanctuary. Did you think the pit would hold me?"

"I don't give a damn about you or your Order." the blonde man spat. "All that matters is Mary and not you or anyone else will keep her from me."

"I would pity thee, had I any to spare." the Fater shook his head. "You are guilty of crimes against the misty land. There is only one castigation and I am its executor."

"To hell with you and Silent Hill. I'm going to burn it down when I take over." Sunderland threatened.

"_Tahrodiis mey!_ My teeth in your neck!" the dagger wielding shade cursed. Screaming as he leapt forward with his black blades Sunderland raised his rusty, oversized knife in the air to meet him.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Feeding The Hungry Rats

Leaving a trail of broken bodies under her wet toes Julia fought alone against a hulking battering ram monster. It swung with tree-like arms but was too slow to catch the slippery pilgrim. Dodging a heavy strike from it that knocked down group of rat men behind her Julia slid inside and lit up its thick torso with a series of hard shots that would have dropped an elephant. It thumped her whole body by swinging its other, ponderous arm across its chest and temporarily knocked her back.

Flicking its shoulders the creature unfurled two deadly bone spikes lodged where its hands should have been and punched both towards her. The pilgrim bent her knees and threw herself back onto the bodies below almost by reflex. She was looking up at the ceiling when the giant arms passed over a half of a second too late to skewer her. As it was the monster impaled a couple of its smaller cousins and Julia scrambled up as it struggled to shake them free. Rushing behind it she shoulder checked a tar spitter to the ground and stomped on its neck before attacking the battering ram's back. Unloading on its left leg she caused the already off balance monster to topple chest first onto the cave floor. Elbowing a mannequin's face in that came up on her Julia jumped onto the hapless battering ram.

Choosing an area that appeared to be along its spine she pounded the same spot over and over until the tissue and bones gave way to her merciless gloves. She'd smashed about four inches down into the ram's body when it stopped moving and before she could breath in relief a doll like creature slammed into her from behind and knocked her down. Tumbling with it onto the corpses nearby the pilgrim gripped onto its head and snapped it almost all of the way around before tossing it aside and getting up.

The ground shook and she turned to the overgrown pile of flesh in a box coming towards the melee. It looked to her like two people laying on a vertical bed that had all been melted together into one revolting mass. The rusty cube that contained it was carried along by a sea anemone-like foot and occasionally it dropped the building size framework on attackers to shake the cave. It's myriad of black tentacles lashed onto, constricted and killed ten at a time and Julia knew that it would have to be dealt with soon.

As confident as she was she simply didn't have the tools to take it down by herself. Looking around she was actually at the fore front of the battle and slightly into the mannequin's territory. It was high time to make a strategic withdrawal maneuver.

Falling back she retreated to friendly lines as the faceless ones continued their advance.

* * *

Even with a mass of bodies piling up neither side seemed to be running out of willing participants or blood thirst. However Chuck had noticed too that the behemoth was only beginning to dominate the field. The creature was devastating everything around it and he didn't know if he could defeat it before it changed the tide of the battle.

His last clip clicked empty and the tired killer rose to his feet. Spotting a couple of armored men in futuristic suits operating a two person minigun he tossed his rifle aside. Shambling towards them he watched as one fed the monstrous gun a constant stream of bullets and the other threw them downrange. Mannequins and battering rams alike fell under the withering onslaught and Chuck decided that this was his ticket.

The sound of the guns firing downed out everything else and Chuck put a hand on the shoulder of the loader when he reached them. The man's head whipped around and Chuck waved in peace. Pointing at the rampaging monstrosity he pointed back to himself and the row of grenades on his chest. Closing his fist he opened it as quickly as he could and the armored man nodded. Putting two fingers to his helmet the gunner stopped firing for a couple quick seconds as he turned back to regard Chuck. Waving him on with a power gloved hand the killer found the strength to jog in front of them.

The horde was coming directly at him over piles of their bullet ridden dead and a moment later the minigun started up again. The front ranks of the mannequins exploded before they could make it to him and Chuck climbed over the ruined bodies with the shrapnel in his chest stabbing him with every movement. The amount of lead in the air buzzing by would have been frightening at any other time but he did not waver. Soon there was little between him and tentacled creature but a line of Aztec spearmen launching obsidian tipped shafts at it.

Chuck was nearing the limits of his endurance and his vision was beginning to darken. The agony he had been dealing with began to lessen and he knew his time was almost up as he grew colder. Ripping the grenades from his chest he could not risk damaging the precious cargo strapped to his leg. He had to trust in the others to take up his task for him when he was no more.

Doggedly refusing to stop he was nearly up to the monster when a black tentacle as strong as a steel cable lassoed him by the waist. Lifting him into the air like a toy the appendage crushed his abdomen into paste but Chuck could hardly feel it. Ripping the cord on the grenade belt he threw it with the last of his strength at the center of the creature's hideous mass. The killer finally relaxed and closed his eyes as it waved him about in the air. His last thoughts were of Sandy Williams and how he could now forgive himself for what he had done.

* * *

When Victor made it to them the two shades were already locked in fierce combat. Sunderland wielded his frightful knife in sweeping, powerful cuts that would have shorn through solid metal. The Fater was a black whirlwind slipping the mighty blows of his enemy and opening holes whenever he spun into the other's shade range. The knight noticed though that Nothing was bleeding ink from several glancing hits while Sunderland took his wounds to almost no effect.

Bashing down a tar thrower Victor cut its throat out and stepped over it to get inside the circle of bodies the shades had formed. Though it was both blessed and cursed by the dead the knight did not want to test his armor against Sunderland's strength and he slid his shield down to the floor. Approaching the blonde man from behind with his sword out before him Victor advanced cautiously. Remembering the lessons he'd learned in the dojo about fighting a similarly armed opponent he took a breath before timing his attack.

When Sunderland pulled back for a heavy swipe at Nothing the knight darted in. Jabbing twice and scooting back he'd barely gotten out of the way as the enemy ghost swung his knife in an impressive 360 degree twist that would have split Victor in two. Turning so that he could see both of them Sunderland did not look angry or even strained. From the other end of the circle Nothing saluted with his gleaming daggers and Victor joined him in going to work on their mutual enemy. The knight fenced as best he could with a blade not meant for it but never got to close to the shade's killing arc. For how heavy his rusty weapon was Sunderland didn't seem to tire from handling it like it were a thin branch.

Staying light on his toes he rarely scored hits on the green jacketed ghost but he did his part to relieve some of the pressure from the Fater. Hitting more often and deeper after minutes of fast paced combat Victor finally saw Sunderland bleed from their combined offensive. It was a good sign and a bad one at the same time. Just how much more damage could their adversary take before he slowed down, much less fell?

There were few sounds that pierced the cacophony of the battle but a series of explosions from behind him went off that hit Victor in the gut. Sunderland cried out and dropped to the side for a second but it was all the Fater needed. Leading in with a rising knee strike that would have decapitated a humanoid Nothing snapped the other shade's head back. Stepping on the blonde man's right hand and pinning his knife to the floor the black haired shade buried one of his knives in Sunderland's throat.

Daring to break away from the scene to glance behind him Victor saw a haze of smoke around the box creature. A series of ugly, ruptured gashes had been blasted into the left side of its wriggling bodies. Turning his attention back to the ghosts he saw Nothing prying something from Sunderland's left hand. Throwing it unceremoniously at Victor just before the other ghost recovered the Fater was hit with a punch that lifted him off the ground. Catching the small object the knight looked down to see a dull, well worn, gold wedding band.

Reaching a shaking hand up to his neck Sunderland yanked the dagger out and threw it to the floor. Bearing his teeth and the remaining dagger Nothing shouted, "Go!" over the din. Backing up Victor abandoned his sword to snatch up his shield with both hands and dive back into fray with the ring clutched tightly in his fist.

Sunderland made a move to follow but the Fater darted into his path and blocked the knight's exit. Grinning wide at the blonde man he waved his index finger back and forth and the other shade winced at the sight.

* * *

Julia felt the grenades go off as she was assisting a group of Hussites put down a squad of levitating bed monsters. She had to jump onto their feet to drag them down and beat them to death before their slimy limbs could attack. She was in the middle of pulverizing one of their midsections when the eruptions took her by surprise. Too short to see over the crowd she sprang up to hang on to the rusty frame of another floating bed creature and got a good view of the battlefield. It was even more chaotic than it felt and her eyes scanned quickly over a hundred acts of violence all occurring at once. Battering rams were knocking down waves of zombies, mannequins with blades for arms were engaging horseless cavalry men, cyborgs and gladiators teamed up to decimate the sea of enemies that didn't seem to have an end.

By chance she saw the green helmet of Victor Rosencrantz bobbing through the crowd some thirty feet to her left. Abandoning her posse she went back into the mob in a desperate bid to link up with him. It was a lot like being in a mosh pit only instead of errant elbows there were rusted butcher knives and gravity defying lumps of skin to worry about. She was getting worn down from the constant expenditure of energy but the end was nowhere in sight and they still had a job to do. If she was going to die in this insanity she was going to do with her fist in Sunderland's face for causing all of this.

Punching and shouldering her way forward she knocked a few mannequins down before getting tripped up on the many bodies below. The crowed pushed her along and Julia could not stop long enough to get her balance. Falling she tried to reverse her descent by grabbing onto something but landed on wet corpses. Two, three, six feet trampled on her to knock the wind out of the pilgrim. Gasping she pushed herself up with one arm as the other wildly searched for something to grip onto. Next to her a swordsman lopped the head off a tar spitter and she attempted to pull herself up by his belt. He noticed her and yanked her to her feet with one arm as he fought off the next enemy with the other.

She did not have time even for a quick thanks as a knife wielding mannequin rushed her. Hopping in with a power jab to stop it in its tracks she followed with a left hook to its body. It staggered long enough for her to finish it off with an overhand right and she knocked it down to resume her search for Victor. Breaking through the crowd to open ground she quickly realized why it not filled with combatants. The area around the cubed giant was a killing field and it was busy massacring friend and foe alike. There she spotted Victor brazenly charging into it's range. Holding up two of the whitish bone splinters he slid out of the way of two tentacles whipping themselves at him to reach the creature's rusted frame. Jumping forward with both spikes he impaled them on the bottom of its mass just under the rusted frame.

The hideous bodies that made up the bulk of the monster unhinged what could vaguely be called their jaws and tore its own grayish flesh apart to reveal apertures that resembled mouths.

It let loose a twin, unearthly, baritone scream that brought parts of the ceiling down and made Julia cover her ears with her sticky gloves.

* * *

Sunderland teetered and fell back on his rear with without provocation from Nothing. Relishing the moment the Fater collected his missing dagger from next to the blonde shade. Black droplets fell from his fingers onto the floor as he bent down and his enemy scrambled back to stand on shaky legs.

"What...what have you done to me..."

"Now we are come to the end, James Sunderland." Nothing almost sang. "Welcome back to mortality."


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Deicide

Victor scrambled away from the monster as it recovered and took a couple feeble swipes at him with its tentacles. Julia was sprinting forward towards him when she saw Chuck's broken body not far from the monster's path. Almost skidding to a halt she regained her momentum before she tripped again. Gritting her teeth in fury she badly wanted to feel Sunderland's facial muscles give way under her hands. Ignoring the moisture gathering in the corners of her eyes she made to Victor who had his eyes locked on the fleshy cube. Tapping his shoulder he whirled to see her and his wild expression softened when he saw who it was.

"Where's Chuck!?" he yelled and she shook her head back and forth with an angry, saddened grimace. The knight's often stoic countencence flashed in rage almost to the point of frenzy. Reaching behind him he tore two more of the spikes from his harness and pointed with one at the cube. "We bring that fucking thing down!" he shouted.

"What's the plan!?"

"Stab it!" he bellowed and turned to let the harness face her. Taking two of the fairly light bones spikes out the pilgrim wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. The monster had recovered and its tentacles were ready for them as Victor psyched himself up to assault it again. "For Charles Taylor!" he roared as he decided on the moment to charge and Julia almost followed him before realizing she was nowhere near as well protected as he was. Exercising more caution she ran around to the creature's side but had to cut through a few mannequins that made it past its black tendrils. She was no sword fighter but the spikes took off entire limbs when she hacked forward with the blades. Whether by the sharpness and quality of her weaponry or her enhanced strength she easily took them apart to open a lane to her target.

The cube thing was incensed at the pain it had been caused and picked up its pace moving ahead. Its many tentacles formed a formidable gauntlet that snatched up or dealt crushing blows to whatever was in its range and even the mannequin horde streaming by gave it as width a berth as possible. Julia had to put out of her mind what a direct hit would do to her and look for a moment when some of the tentacles were busy. It picked up a battering ram that lumbered to close and four appendages tore it to pieces so the pilgrim chose then to make her move.

One of the thick tendrils rose up and tried to slam down on her but she veered to the left before it hit. She felt the whoosh of air on her face it slapped down so close and she tripped up her feet just slightly. Pitching forward awkwardly she used the spike in her left hand like a ski pole and righted herself as she closed in on the cube. It dropped its frame to the ground from the seven feet or so in the air it rested and she was rattled when it hit cave floor with earthquake force. Unable to stop herself in time she ran into the five foot thick frame shoulder first and lost one of the spikes when she bounced off the rusted metal.

It was now blocking her path to its flesh and she reached up to grip onto the frame. When it pulled the cube back up she was hoisted bodily into the air and kept a vice like grip on the warm beam. Above her the tentacles attacked other prey and she silently begged that to remain so. Its mottled mass was just a couple feet past the frame and she swung herself up with a burst of energy to stab at it with her remaining spike. It screamed again and shook the frame so hard that she lost her grip and fell backward to the hard stone floor.

Shaking the stars from her vision with her head pounding from the sheer vibration of the creature's howl Julia pushed herself up and crawled towards the spikes she had lost. It was only a few feet away and getting a hand on it she forced herself up with it as a crutch. Doggedly going back to she scurried under the frame and tried to make sure she was clear if it dropped the cube again. There was a scant foot or so in between the reddish brown framework and the grotesque creature's slimy foot that she would have to hope would be enough room. Impaling the moist, slug like pad with the inscribed spike she stayed as close to it as she dared while covering her ears. It howled again and dropped the frame to make her fall onto its slimy foot with the impact. It was soft but smelled like rotting ammonia and she pushed herself away from its disgusting skin angrily. Trapped for a few moments it lifted the frame again and Julia bolted towards freedom. Trying to get distance in between her and the cube she bounded over a body just before a thunderbolt hit her from the side. She felt something make contact just before she blacked out.

The pilgrim woke up in a pool of blood among a pile on mannequin bodies. It hurt to breath and entire right side of her body was throbbing in pain. She wanted nothing more than to take a nap but it was not over. Her muscles refused to work without a fight and she sat up in a daze. Her hair was soaked with God knew what and it clung to her beat up face in clumps. Everything reeked of coppery blood as she blinked to reorient herself.

The cube monster was still moving but it had slowed to a crawl and many of its tentacles lay inert on the ground. Two of them though had Victor high in the air and he valiantly stabbed a white spike through one of them. The monster howled as the tentacle fell but the remaining one threw the knight down at the unforgiving floor.

"Nuh...nooooou..." her bruised brain sputtered and she haphazardly crawled on the bodies towards him. Somehow making it to her feet she tried to run to him but could barely shuffle she was so injured. The pilgrim could only watch as the monster focused a half dozen of its working tentacles to attack her green armored man with vicious slams. She heard his armor crack under heavy, direct attacks and Julia moaned as she tried to teeter faster towards him.

When the tentacles pulled back Victor's body was bloody and his armor shattered. Incredibly he was still moving and sat up with one spike left in his harness. Twisting to get to his knees he made it to his feet as his armor fell apart in large fragments. The monster screamed at him and with one hopping step and a mighty effort he threw the last spike at it. Spinning through the air it struck true just above the frame and the cubed monstrosity shuddered. The cube fell again along with the rest of the creature's tentacles and they flopped in death throes. The writhing bodies in the center groaned one last time before they too stopped and the great beast finally came to a halt.

A great cheer went up from what was left of Nothing's forces and Julia looked around to see that there weren't many left. The mannequins themselves were rendered inert as if they had been inanimate all along. The Nowherites stampeded back into the hole from which they came and at last it closed up to revert back into an ordinary cave wall. The pilgrim's brain could barely work as she witnessed the insane and impossible.

Julia hobbled the rest of the way to Victor who was watching the creature die. "Vuh...Vic!" she stammered and he turned his head slowly towards her. His helmet had been cracked and his face lacerated multiple times as blood streamed down his features. The monster had inflicted frightful injuries on the knight and hit him so hard that not only did his armor break but some of it actually had been caved inward to pierce his skin. She had no idea how he was still standing let alone able to act.

"Jewel." he croaked.

"We did it...we won." she said tiredly.

"Huhnnngg..." he blurted and started to fall backwards. Julia tried to catch him but did not have the strength to stop his inertia. They hit the ground together and Julia nearly cried out from the pain. "Vic...Victor..." she rasped as she pulled herself closer to him. He lifted his hand to her wet hair and breathed out hard.

"Julia Stormson...Jewel..." he got out. "Finish this...put him down..."

"No! I'm going to...I have to save you..." she cried.

He was wheezing hard and his chest was rising slowly but his gaze was locked on her. "I can't...Jewel...I'm departing..." he strained and she started to cry. Hunching forward she bawled and kissed his dirty, bloody face. Her tears fell like warm rain drops and carved out tiny clean streaks on the dying knight's face. She almost fainted on top of him she was in so much misery.

"I...I will never leave you..." he promised as she whimpered just above him. His eyes, beautiful, dark, were not afraid or sad and through blurred vision she could see that they never left her. "I will be a ghost...in this holy land...following you forever."

"No! No! Not like this! Anything but this!" she pleaded miserably.

"Don't...don't cry Jewel..." he whispered hard and his words were becoming more strained by the second. "Everyone dies...you made me...alive...in the first..."

"I'm going with with you. Do you hear me? I can't do this by myself. We'll be...right here, just like this."

"Nnnuhh...live...I..." his chest gurgled and Julia's heart almost stopped. Drawing in a hissing, bubbling breath Victor he fought to speak. "Jjjjewel..." he forced the air out. "...love you...see...gin...again...I..."

His chest fell and it did not rise again. The knight's grip on her relaxed and Julia stared at his face in near catatonic shock. The knight's eyes were still on her but the light had faded from them. Wrapping her arms around his mangled body the pilgrim screamed herself hoarse.

Voices caught her ear and looking up through a haze of despair she saw that the two ghosts were the last ones standing. "Sssunderland!" she rasped with a guttural hatred. Gently closing Victor's open eyes she whipped her head around to find Chuck's corpse in the crowd.

* * *

Floored by the attacks on his true body Sunderland was pinned to the ground by Nothing's knee while his daggers opened grievous wounds for every second that passed. The spears had temporarily stunned him but in that short time the vengeful Fater had opened dozens of wounds that would have killed a human. He was not, however, human anymore and as he recovered he put up a hand to push his adversary off him. Latching onto it the black clad shade ripped a dagger through his wrist and nearly severed the hand off completely.

Using his functioning arm he threw Nothing off and scooted back to get to his feet as his left hand spurted blood. The blonde spirit could not move his fingers as his hand was barely attached and he snatched his knife up. Each step he took left a small puddle of red vitals and he could not believe that he was so close to losing after everything he'd gone through to bring his spouse back to life.

"Any last words?" Nothing asked confidently as he strode forward. Grazed, cut and hit with glancing blows the enemy was losing ink but Sunderland had not managed to land a single direct attack that would have tilted the odds in his favor. The moments of fleeting paralysis his Sacraments had caused simply gave the Fater too much time to work.

"I'm not done yet." Sunderland promised. Backing up he hit the column he spent much of his time perched on. He had to draw his enemy in instead of letting him use his speed and admittedly superior combat experience. "You can't kill me, not here."

"Oh, but I can, James Sunderland. It is I you cannot hope to defeat no matter how many times you strike me down." Nothing gesticulated grandly.

Sunderland tensed and when the Fater leapt at him with his blades in the air the blonde shade acted. Slipping to the side he brought up the flat of the knife to hit Nothing in the back when he chipped the stone column with his daggers. Reacting far too quickly the demon spun around just as Sunderland caught him in the stomach with the tip of his knife and lifted the hated Fater into the air. Pouring every ounce of strength he had into this one movement Sunderland drove the knife through his opponent and into the column.

The other shade coughed black ichor onto the knife as he struggled to free himself. Fastened like a bug to a wall impaled by a nail he was doomed but would not accept it. "That...is what you get." Sunderland breathed hard and clutched his flapping hand. "Now you die."

Grinning with ink in his mouth and a stream of it running down the column the Fater ground out, "You think I am done? You know naught of the ways of the misty land."

"How about I cut your head off? Bet that's a good place to start."

Movement to the right caught Sunderland's eye and he jerked over to see the last Sacrament coming towards him. She was ashen faced, completely soaked in blood from head to toe, beaten up and barely able to walk at more than a limp towards him. He was well worn himself but still more than a match for a single human.

"Mother Reborn..." he nodded. "At last."

"No!" the Fater gasped from where he was mounted on the column. "Julia, run!"

The woman did not listen and continued towards them over the bodies in the way. He bare feet left five toed, red prints on the parts of the floor that were not already shallow pools themselves and he could almost smell her breath from here.

"Come to me." Sunderland urged. "Let us end this once and for all. No more distress, no more struggle."

She did not react to his words but did not stop walking either. When she was ten feet away she brought out from behind her back a rather ordinary looking revolver. He had to marvel at the thought that he could be stopped now by a few bullets.

"Huh." he said thoughtfully. "Do you-"

Raising the barrel she shot him in the chest. The slug tagged him and instead of barely feeling it the weight of the world followed the bullet. He was slammed to the ground by a force greater than anything he could have stopped or had felt before. An invisible weight ground him into the stone floor and squeezed blood out of his body like a sponge. It lasted only for a short time but it felt like an eternity to the shade.

As quickly as it came it was gone and Sunderland sat up in a stupor. Julia Stormson, so close had to only reach out and end her life, was waiting with the revolver pointed at him. He blinked as he tried to wrap his head around what just happened and she shot again. The effect repeated and he could barely think as whatever force the gun summoned smeared him into the floor. Sunderland felt his insides compacting and when this one passed he coughed up blood. Rolling to his side he struggled to prop himself up with his good hand.

Stormson kicked it out and he collapsed back to the floor. Looking up at her he searched her impassive, implacable face and realized that she was purposely letting him recover. He tried to say something and she shot him in the throat at almost point blank range. He felt the bullet blast out the back of his neck just before the weight came again. Reduced to making bubbling, hissing sounds he could do nothing as she shot him again before the pressure had lifted. Doubling the effect Sunderland would have been shrieking if he could move a single muscle in his body. Spittle began to froth out of his lips and he mentally raged at the injustice being done to him.

The cruel Sacrament backed away until the pressure subsided. Sunderland breathed hard as his wits slowly returned. He sat up again and realized that she only had two bullets left. Gulping he gathered himself as she stared down at him. "You've only got...two more left...you'd better hope they'll do the job."

"Don't worry." she spoke with icy calm. "This last one is a doozy."

Rolling out the barrel of the revolver she adjusted it to what looked like a red bullet in the chamber. He felt something unholy in that small bullet and his eyes went wide. "Wait, hold on, mercy-"

She lined the barrel up with his eyes and Sunderland got out, "N-"

There was a flash and then nothingness.

* * *

Sunderland's head was a caved in mess of red mush. The Aglaophotis bullet had done its job killing that which was already dead. The spirit of the man in the green jacket was finally stamped out but the cost...the cost was too high. Looking over at the Fater she saw that he was still moving despite being run through by the horrid knife. Dropping the heavy revolver Julia grunted and shrieked as she tried to pull the gigantic blade out from the stone column but Sunderland's monstrous strength ensured that it was never coming out.

"Gyah! Ggh! Fuck! Come on!"

"Leave me..." Nothing breathed hard.

"No! You have to bring him back!" she cried. "Take my body, take my soul, I don't care! I'll do anything you want!"

"'Tis too late, sweetest of pilgrims, most glittering of Jewels..." the shade drawled and his voice was on the verge of cracking with emotion Julia did not think he was capable of.

"No! You can't die! I won't let you!" she howled.

Lifting a quivering hand sticky with his own tar colored blood he reached out to her and the distraught pilgrim abandoned her impossible task to clasp onto his palm with both of hers. The shade's grip, able to crush spines and bend steel, was weak but he still clung to her crimson hands with as much tenacity as he could.

"You...you have within yourself the power of the rebirth..." he uttered slowly.

"I don't understand!" she cried with intense grief distorting her features. "What do I do!?"

"The holy items...the Grail and the Words...they are close...take them from this place that they might not be misused again...use them..."

"How...how will they help...?"

"Brave leaf, unconquered, strongest of all of us...gucnk..." he hacked. Grimacing in mortal pain ink streamed out of his low hanging mouth and dribbled off his chin as he spoke. "You are...the sole survivor...I bequeath the misty land's care unto you...and you am become...hnnng...the heir of Jennifer Carroll..."

"I can't! I can't do it!" she bawled uncontrollably. "Not alone! Not without him! I'm not...I don't have the strength..."

"You must...nnnnhugh...there is...hngh...no one else." he strained to say. With great effort and floating pupils he whispered harshly, "Julia Stormson...it is in thee that all begins...and we will always be with you..."

His hand went limp in hers but she refused to give up. "You can't go!" she clenched her teeth while hot tears burned her eyes. "You can't because...I believe in you. I believe in you, Daniel Kewahqu. You'll never die as long as I'm still standing."

With a distant look on his face he smiled at her words but not the usual kind that made her cringe. It was a very human, exhausted, half-hearted one as if he'd been waiting for her to say exactly that but knew he would not live to enjoy it. When he spoke again his eyes were glossy and far away. "And the People wept in fear and joy at the reunion...but my faith in the salvation of Xuchilbara...still...hnngg...yet...huuukc...does not waver..."

Exhaling one last, long breath his torso and his forehead sank to rest on the top edge of the very knife that had killed him. Julia finally let him go and the Fater's hand swung lifelessly in the air. "No! No! Tower, can you hear me!? Someone, anyone, bring him back!" the pilgrim cried. "Bring him...bring them all back...don't leave me here alone..."

Staggering away from the column all her rage, sorrow and emotion threatened to overwhelm her. Her head was spinning, eyes puffy and red, nerves shot and drained. Yet in spite of her frayed condition she felt eyes on her back and the fractured woman slowly turned to see Pyramid Head standing some twenty feet behind her among the many bodies. Mute, immaculate, uncaring, it stared at her with its rusty blade hanging at its side.

In a state of trauma, hysteria and grief beyond anything she'd ever felt before the lone survivor of the battle approached the looming giant. Pulling off her heavily soiled gloves with her blood, Victor's blood and a hundred others staining them she threw gory knuckles to the side as she stepped on corpse after corpse. She would not run, not battle the demon after everything she had gone through. If it wanted her, it could have her. Coming to stand in front of the grotesquely muscled fiend no more than an arm's length away she was not afraid.

"Go on then." she dared it and tears rolled down her face though she could barely feel anything anymore. "Go on. Send me to Victor. I will not keep him waiting."

Folding her legs she knelt down in front of it and closed her eyes. In a strange way, this wasn't so bad. Almost everyone who had meant something to her was here with her now. Her only regret was that neither she nor the Fater would be able to keep up their end of their bargain. No matter. She had come back to Silent Hill like she promised. If she was able to meet her parents in the next life then she would ask them to forgive her.

It moved and she waited patiently for the death blow. Knife screeching against the floor as it walked the creature dragged itself away from her. Opening her eyes she watched in dismay as it left her there unharmed. She wasn't even worth killing and the knot of despair in her stomach grew a little tighter as bile rose in her throat.

Getting up she swiftly leapt over the dead to put herself in it's path. Waving her arms she said, "Hey! Asshole! I'm right here! What are you waiting for!?"

It jerked along and when it came to her she refused to move. With one hand it simply brushed her aside and sent the pilgrim tumbling away back to the floor. Outraged and hurt she sat up to glare at it incredulously. The monster awkwardly pulled itself to the headless body of Sunderland and dropped its heavy knife to the cave floor. Picking up the ghost's corpse with one arm it threw the mutilated flesh over its shoulder. Moving away towards the rear of the chamber it passed out of sight beyond the carved wall and Julia could take no more. Lowering herself back to the wet floor among the blood of the dead she curled into a ball and began to wail.


	39. Epilogue

Epilogue: Rebel, Suffer, Fight, Love and Die

It took a couple of hours to drag the three bodies out to the pier. The lake was calm, the air still and the mist kept its distance. She was tired already and wounded but it didn't matter as there was much more work to be done before she could rest. The boat took them across water as smooth as glass except for the gentle waves her paddling made. Steering it towards the opposite shore it did not take long to locate the small strip of land she sought even in the swirling white. Perhaps it was the fact that she thought of this place often or that she had recently been here...or maybe Daniel Kewahqu's poisoned blood was exerting another hidden influence. It wasn't important, not anymore.

Coming to the stones underneath the great oak tree she took a moment to reflect on everything that had happened. First coming to this cursed land, realizing she could not leave it at will, heading back into town with no other options, being born here. Dying here. It wouldn't be so bad to join the people in her life, would it? All the fighting, the heartache, the anguish, the fear and devouring emptiness had led to this. Standing alone, surrounded by endless mist and the departed. She would have wept but there was nothing left in her withered tear ducts.

Searching the nearby buildings she collected all the items she would need. Returning to the stones she started to toil by herself surrounded by the billowing fog that almost seemed comforting instead of hostile. For hours she dug straight down into the dark earth with no other sounds than the shifting soil and her ragged breaths. When she was done with the first she started in on the second even with her back sore and hands beginning to blister. The day wore on and her body cried out for food, rest, water but she ignored it. Night began to fall and she continued digging with the help of her flashlight, her last friend. When she was done with the third she used the ladder to temporarily leave the site and head indoors. Staying in someone's old bedroom she spent hours carving words into metal until her fingers bled and her eyelids kept falling down. When she did finally sleep it was fitful, harried, unwanted.

Rising in the morning with first light she again disregarded the gnawing hunger and parched throat that dogged her every step. Returning to her labors she sweat under the eternally somber Silent Hill sky once more. The last hole was the hardest to dig but she did it anyway and moved on to finish the carving. When the words were finally done she returned to the boat she had beached the day before on the green grass blowing in the wind, dancing. Hauling the what was left of the first body out she dragged it back to the where the stones waited patiently. It had taken her some time to saw him free and he left a streak of black along the ground as she tugged what was left of him along. Lining it up with the deep hole dug the day before she rolled the body into the first grave. Shoveling for many minutes she filled it nearly to the top but left a foot and a half of space back to the grass line.

Moving the nearby uprooted sapling to the center of the grave she set it into the dirt and fastened it in place. Filling in the divet around it and patting the soil down with her shovel she did not bother giving this one a commemorative plate. The tree would be all the memorial he would have wanted. Here and now, she upheld her end of the bargain just like he could have if he had been the one to live. For all his faults he was at least a man of his word. She could not think of something to say; she did not think that there was anything to say.

To the right of the tree and above the second grave she stabbed a plate of metal into the ground and jumped on it with all her weight to embed it into the earth. Scratched onto it with deep enough grooves to withstand the onslaught of time it read, "Charles Taylor, friend". Heading back to the boat she hefted his weight and dragged him too back to the yawning maws of the ground waiting to eat their fill. Stopping before rolling him in she noticed that his face was not bunched up in pain and fear but serene and calm. She wondered if the tortured soul had found some measure of peace before he died. Casting him in she spent many minutes working the ground until he too was safely enclosed in it.

Throwing aside her shovel she stood over the makeshift resting place. Searching her memory for something to say she could come up with precious little to give to him. "Goodbye, Chuck. You were a good kid at heart. It was...an honor to fight beside you. I hope that the world will not forget what you did to redeem yourself."

Sighing she moved on to the open space in between the second grave and the old headstones that had been there for almost since her birth. Retrieving a similar slab to the first one this one read, "Alex Stormson, brother + son". Planting it in line with the other chunk of metal and the stone epitaphs it did not have a body for her to lay to rest along with it. Making sure it was good and deep she came to look at all three of the Stormsons in a row. Facing them like this was harder than she thought and she could not justify what she was doing. "I'm sorry." she said and turned away.

The next one took her a few minutes to work up the courage to do. She held the bit of metal in her hands for what seemed like forever before she got up to put it in place. Planting it at the head of the fourth grave to the right of the older ones it read, "Victor Rosencrantz, hero of SH". Trembling as she made sure it was steady she made the long, aching trip back to the boat. Staring at the last body she reluctantly gripped it and dragged it back to the others. Returning to the boat one final time she gathered the items inside and pushed the small craft out onto the open water to drift.

Walking to the sad work site she set down the objects in her hands and knelt by the only body not yet given a proper send off. Running her grimy fingertips along his inert forehead she knew this decomposing lump of bone and flesh was not the man himself but she grieved anyway. Rolling him into the grave made sorrow find her again and she was almost blinded as she worked. The words welled up in her chest unbidden and she did not recognize them nor care where they came from.

"Goddess of love, goddess of death, eater of filth, mother of all seasons." she said as she retrieved her shovel. "Mother of the rivers, cleanse your son with waters flowing from the fountain of youth." she prayed as she began to fill the grave. Each little bit that covered him only hurt more until he was mercifully out of sight under a thin layer of soil. No one should ever have to do something like this.

"Mother of the mountains," she sobbed, "caress him with murmurs, take him into your bosom, the dream of your deepest can-...cany-...ca-..." Her voice cracked and she stopped shoveling for a few moments to cry onto her forearm. Her chest was wracked by heaves and it was some time before she got them under control. Wiping her eyes with her shoulder she resumed shoveling. "Take him into your bosom, the dream of your deepest canyon." she finished.

The sky had darkened by the time she was done and as she patted down the last bit of dirt she whispered, "Mother of the night, weep with us, light his path with the stars above." Throwing aside the shovel she laid on top of the freshly moved earth and cried gently as night fully descended around them. Hours passed as she drifted in and out of sleep. Waking for good in total darkness she patted around find her light and turn it on once more. Picking up his wavy bladed sword that lay nearby she sunk it to its skulled hilt in the ground above his body.

Moving to the third grave next beside her parents' headstones and next to his she set up the final piece of metal with words scratched into them. This one read, "Julia Stormson, daughter + survivor" and she sat on the edge of the large hole to let her legs dangle into it. Picking up the Dark Grail at her side she rolled it in her hands as Daniel had done once long ago. It _was_ heavy, heavier than it even looked. Ornately carved and priceless beyond measuring she set it aside in the dirt next to the Crimson Ceremony and Kewahqu's journal.

Looking over at the headstones around her she said a mental goodbye to all of them except Victor's. This one she lingered on as a thousand memories of the man flooded her mind. Everyone else she could have lost and still lived. Not happily, not without regret but lived on regardless. This solitary casualty she could not abide by. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right. They'd come here to defend Silent Hill, stop evil from flourishing and this is how they were repaid? Even the Spirit Of The Night Air, the one who had dedicated both his life and unlife to this place, lay dead and buried. How was that justice?

Picking up the revolver that had ended James Sunderland's twisted existence she rolled out the barrel. Only one silvery bullet remained and one was all she needed. Rotating it into place and sliding the weapon back together she cradled the gun in her lap. This was supposed to be the easy part but she was finding it immensely difficult. She had many opportunities to change her mind, take another path, think about things differently.

People said it was a permanent solution to a temporary problem but those people had never been in her shoes. There was nothing temporary about the crushing, soul-shredding agony she was in. There was nothing out there for her, nothing to get back to, nothing to care about. Her family was all dead, the man she would have married was dead and anyone who could have understood exactly what she went through was dead too. No one beyond the town's limits could even understand the gravity of what they had done. They'd throw her in a mental institution for talking about half the things she'd seen.

Time crawled by and she finally worked up the nerve to lift the barrel of the revolver to her temple. Shaking badly she had to use her other hand to keep her arm from vibrating the gun off target. After so many words poured out of her for Victor she could not think of any for herself. She tried taking deep breaths and closed her eyes in preparation. Inhaling hard she grimaced and clenched her teeth before pulling the trigger. She heard the click by her ear.

Nothing happened.

The breath in her chest exploded out and she was gasping, bewildered and stunned. Looking down at the gun like it had betrayed her she nearly vomited from the experience. With quivering fingers she discovered that the bullet wasn't in the proper chamber; she had rotated it too far. The desolate pilgrim was sure she had moved it to the right place, dead sure.

She felt flush, unsteady, suddenly woozy. The weight of the gun dragged it back down to her lap as she fought through a titanic adrenaline dump. Looking around herself in the dark she hoped for a hundred horrors surrounding her tiny light but there were no monsters coming from the void. Perhaps they knew there was nothing more they could to do to her. Perhaps the black blood in her system kept them at bay. She thought about Daniel and his tragic path that brought him to become a conduit of Silent Hill's wrath. For all of his words she'd listened to or read he never mentioned how he managed to shoulder the weight of his actions, how he went on living when he was already dead inside. He never even told them who he really was.

Something the Fater once wrote flit through her tormented mind. Putting the gun aside for a moment she opened the Crimson Ceremony. Flipping through it she scanned the pages by flashlight until she found what he might have been talking about. "Upon the hill where the light descended, the Beast intoned his song. With words of blood, drops of mist and the vessel of night the grave become an open field. The people wept in fear and joy at the reunion but my faith in the salvation of Xuchilbara did not waver." she recited.

The words swam through her forlorn psyche but minutes passed before she could comprehend their meaning. They were nothing but a tiny, mad flicker of hope like a lit match against an infinite ocean of darkness not unlike her flashlight keeping the ghost town's endless shadow at bay.

Looking up at the silent headstones arrayed before her and back down to the heavy gun the pilgrim knew in that moment what she was going to do.

Above, on the gnarled branches of the mighty oak nearby, a solitary crow watched her with the light reflecting in its deep, abyssal eyes.

The End


End file.
